Primary Recommendation

Informa - Leader in business publishing and conferences hunting for acquisitions

November 2003

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Informa is the product of the merger in 1998 of businesspublisher, LLP, and business conference organiser, IBC. The marriage was highly unusual because it wasn't a merger for cost saving by removing duplicated overheads, but one to intensify the enlarged group's market position in each chosen area, with the opportunity for cross-selling also clearly apparent at the time. Initially, the enlarged group enjoyed a stellar growth path with operating profit rising from Â£25m to Â£47m and earnings from 15.9p to 22.7p betweenthe years ended December 1998 and 2000. Not surprisingly, the shares became a hot property, running up from 342p to apeak of 830p, but the events of 11 September, a ...

To access our archive of articles and to receive current issues you need to subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber? Login

Sectors on the move - November

Peacock - Clothing retailer poised for breakout

Informa - â€œGrowth acceleration planâ€ triggers share spike (May 2015)

Informa - Eyes further deals (May 2014)

Informa - Disposal of corporate training boosts quality of earnings (October 2013)

Informa - Business publishing and events firm looks set for re-rating (April 2013)

Informa - Net debt falls again (September 2012)

Informa - Falling debt should lead to re-rating (April 2012)

Informa - High quality publishing and events company on low PE (December 2011)

Informa - Blue chip publisher and events organiser looks good value (November 2011)

Informa (October 2010)

Informa (June 2010)

Informa - Gains now exceed 150% (April 2010)

Informa - Aborts Springer aquisition (January 2010)

Informa - Smaller events closed to protect margins (September 2009)

Informa - Rights issue resolves funding concerns (June 2009)

Informa - Beats forecast (May 2009)

Informa - Shares rally after positive update (February 2009)

Informa - Publisher and events organiser on give-away price to sales ratio of 0.69 (December 2008)

Informa - Proposed merger with Taylor & Francis (April 2004)

Informa - Acquires PJB for £120m (February 2004)

Informa - Shares recover after Iraq war ends (July 2003)

Informa (November 2002)

Informa - Prospective PE just 11.8 (August 2002)

Informa - 73% gain in 5 months (April 2002)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

All material on this website is protected by copyright. You may use Information retrieved from the www.scsw.co.uk website for your own personal non-commercial use which means that you may not sell or copy this information to any third party without prior written consent. ISSN 1358-183X