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29 Oct 2019
Informa : Looking through the politics - Buy

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Informa : Looking through the politics - Buy
Informa Plc (INF:LON) | 922 -24 (-0.3%) | Mkt Cap: 11,929m
- Published:
29 Oct 2019 -
Author:
Alastair Reid | David Amiras, CFA -
Pages:
6 -
Hong Kong disruption: Looking at the detail, we assume just under 3% organic growth for their 10m trading update on 11 November (after 3.3% in H1) – most divisions should see modest acceleration, but we assume Markets slows to c.3% from 4.4% in H1, given major HK events run in the quarter which may have been disrupted by political events (as well as weaker Fashion and Middle East construction events). Hong Kong represents c.8% of divisional revenues for the full year, and so this may weigh on FY divisional guidance in 2019 (currently set for Markets at ‘4.5%+’), but it should not be a recurring factor, and it creates an easy comparable into 2020, helping to ensure growth can be sustained (or potentially accelerate if demand comes back) over the medium-term.
Structural improvements: Longer-term we believe investors should focus much more on the scope for incremental positives around a) their latest initiative to build ‘Auto Trader’ like portals for the B2B industries served by its exhibitions (more detail may emerge at their exhibition site visit in Frankfurt on 6 November, we estimate just 20% of divisional events have these currently), and b) their increasing balance sheet headroom providing potential for accelerating cash returns.
Pricing bearish scenarios: Even in a bearish scenario for consensus earnings with updated FX forecasts and no assumption of HK demand returning, the stock – at 15x FY20 consensus earnings – would still trade at a c.20% discount to RELX despite likely faster organic growth in FY20/21. We therefore see significant scope for re-rating over time.