Informa (LON:INF) management used its 2025 results presentation to underline the company’s increasing exposure to B2B live events, highlight what it described as structural tailwinds in both live experiences and specialist knowledge, and address investor questions on Middle East disruption, AI, and capital allocation.
2025 performance and business mix
Management described 2025 as “a remarkable year,” citing double-digit reported growth and noting that profits grew faster than revenues. The company also reported another year of double-digit dividend growth, margin expansion, and lower leverage.
By division, management said the B2B live events business grew nearly 10% like-for-like in 2025, while the academic business grew 3.6%. The B2B digital services operation—described as the newest business for the group—had what management called “a tough first year,” with an explicit focus on returning it to growth.
Live events: portfolio strength and growth priorities
Executives emphasized what they see as continued momentum in face-to-face experiences, describing live events as “never been stronger,” and pointing to originality, community, and the difficulty of replicating “live human experiences.” They also argued that increasing specialization across industries is creating new opportunities for category-specific products and extensions.
Management framed the global exhibitions and conferences market as a roughly $30 billion end market, and highlighted both structural growth and consolidation opportunities. Informa said it now has about 800 brands in its portfolio, with its top 50 brands representing £2 billion-plus of revenue; management added that 10 brands deliver over $50 million of revenue each.
Looking ahead, management said it has 20 brand extensions and new launches planned for 2026, and is targeting minimum 5%+ growth in every region. The company outlined six focus areas, consistent with prior investor messaging, for driving growth across the live events portfolio:
- Pricing for value (including yield, mix, and pricing above inflation)
- Growing market penetration within served end markets
- Geo expansion (taking brands into new markets)
- Brand expansion and syndication, including partnerships with cities
- Attendee value and monetization (beyond exhibitor-funded models)
- Services wrap to expand the value proposition around events
On attendee pricing specifically, management said the company is rolling it out “more broadly” but not across every event, framing that as additional runway for future yield and pricing improvement. Executives also discussed “Lead Insights,” describing it as a data product built from the company’s proprietary data capabilities; management characterized 2025 as a launch year, 2026 as a scaling year, and 2027 as a full year, with expected year-on-year revenue increases as it ramps.
Middle East disruption: rescheduling, bookings, and cost considerations
Management spent significant time addressing investor concerns related to disruption in parts of the Middle East and its effect on the events calendar. The company said three affected-market brands had already traded early in the year “extremely well,” citing WHX Labs and Gulfood as having fully traded and being “fully rebooked for 2027.”
For LEAP, management said the event was still scheduled for early April, but that the company had already secured an option to run it later in the year if needed, with a decision to be made in the next one to two weeks with partners and authorities.
For other events in the region, management said “every single one of the remaining events we have rescheduled and secured capacity for the remainder of the year.” Asked about cost implications, executives acknowledged some fixed costs would be incurred for events that were already “in-flight,” but said they did not expect anything that would “materially change” the company’s position. Management also said it had not seen exhibitor demands for discounts or rebates, and reported no large-scale withdrawals or cancellations at the time of the call.
On forward bookings for rescheduled Middle East events running between September and December, management said bookings were “pretty much in line with our average,” around 50%-60%. Executives also argued that exhibitor participation tends to be more resilient than attendee participation during periods of disruption, and that exhibitors for Middle East shows are typically more geographically diversified than attendees, with representation cited from China and Southeast Asia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Europe, with some U.S. presence described as not material.
Academic and digital services: growth targets and licensing optionality
In academic publishing, management said the business is targeting 4% growth in 2026 after delivering 3.6% growth in 2025. Executives said subscriptions were running ahead year-on-year on renewals, quality, and cash flow. They also cited targets including 20% growth in open access research submissions, alongside additional revenue opportunities in licensing and archives, and efforts to expand in underrepresented segments such as corporate R&D and corporate publishing.
On licensing—raised by analysts in the context of journal content and LLM-related use cases—management said it continues to look for deals and noted negotiations occur “all the time,” including potential areas like journals that have not yet been monetized in this way. However, executives emphasized they would report deals when completed and said there was nothing to report at that stage for 2026.
For B2B digital services, management acknowledged a weak first year and said the objective for 2026 is to return the business to growth, with a focus on major customers in major North American enterprise technology markets. Executives said the company is rationalizing what may be an overly diverse portfolio and expressed confidence that the business would “join the growth club” by the next reporting cycle, while stopping short of committing to a growth rate above 5%.
AI strategy, cash flow, and capital allocation
Management positioned AI as both an operational tool and an end-market opportunity. Executives said Informa began building foundations during COVID by investing in a proprietary data warehouse capability called IRIS, enabling more disciplined data collection and supporting productivity, product enhancement, and more targeted customer engagement. They also pointed out that AI-related content is already embedded in the events portfolio, citing 50+ B2B live events in 2025 focused on enterprise technology and 800,000 paying attendees across those events.
On the balance sheet, management said the company has one debt maturity to refinance this year, has reduced leverage, and plans to reduce it again in 2026. Executives said CapEx remains around 3% ± of revenue, characterized as roughly £120-130 million annually at the current scale.
Free cash flow was highlighted as a key support for capital allocation. Management said 2025 free cash flow was close to £900 million (described as “over $1 billion”), the highest annual level the company has delivered, and said it expects 2026 free cash flow growth to be more in line with operating profit growth, targeting a mid-single-digit percentage increase year over year.
Executives also reiterated their commitment to a progressive dividend and discussed share repurchases, noting the company had increased the amount planned for the year and would review it again in June, citing market “dislocation.” On M&A, management said the company has been out of the acquisition market for more than two years to focus on integration and organic performance, while suggesting the current share price and cash generation make buybacks attractive.
About Informa (LON:INF)
Our events, digital products and academic research services connect specialists with knowledge, helping them learn more, know more and do more.
We do this in dozens of specialist markets and subject matter categories, including in Healthcare & Pharma, Technology, Finance, Education, Marketing, Health & Nutrition, Foodservice, and many more.
And we do this through a range of products and services, including major live events, specialist media and content, expert research articles, books and open research platforms, accredited training, buyer discovery services, and digital demand and lead-generation services.
