LONDON, March 26, 2026, 20:11 GMT
Informa Plc slipped 0.4% to finish at 764.2 pence on Thursday, trailing a sharper drop in London stocks. The FTSE 100 shed 1.3%, hit by oil prices surging past $105 a barrel as optimism for rapid de-escalation in the Iran conflict faded and investors scrutinized the exhibitions group’s exposure to different regions.
This hits Informa harder than plenty of other UK media stocks. Reuters called it the world’s biggest exhibitions group earlier this month. Informa has now pushed back events for over 10 brands in the Middle East. About 25% of its revenue comes from India, the Middle East and Africa—yet it has already locked in close to 40% of 2026 IMEA revenue.
Management has moved to calm investors with both cash and clarity. Informa bumped up its 2026 share buyback target to 250 million pounds from the earlier 200 million, reporting that over 2 billion pounds of next year’s revenue is already locked in—paid, booked, or committed. The company also revealed it has repurchased 72.5 million pounds of its own shares so far this year at an average price of 834p, noticeably above where the stock ended Thursday.
Stephen Carter hit both points in his latest update. Informa, he said, turned in an “outstanding performance in 2025.” Still, he flagged to analysts that “there are some fixed costs that we’ll have to swallow” tied to events already underway. Informa
Numbers came in strong for Informa: record revenue for 2025 hit 4.04 billion pounds, with adjusted operating profit at 1.14 billion pounds and free cash flow of 884.8 million pounds. Adjusted diluted earnings per share climbed 11% to 55.6p. But statutory diluted EPS tumbled to 0.8p, reflecting increased amortisation and the earlier signaled non-cash impairment at Informa TechTarget.
It’s not easy to stack up these sectors head-to-head. RELX, for one, has been rattled by investor jitters over AI shaking up data and analytics. Then there’s GL Events out of France, which just projected more than 8% revenue growth for 2026 earlier this month. Informa finds itself straddling both worlds—part information business, part live-events.
Thursday brought no relief on the macro front. Brent crude climbed past $105, according to Reuters, while a fresh Reuters poll showed most economists now anticipate the Bank of England will keep rates parked at 3.75% for the rest of the year—a notable shift from earlier expectations of cuts. That combination—pricier oil, stubbornly high rates—tends to squeeze corporate travel, event spending, and valuation multiples all at once.
The risk here is simple enough. Carter said Informa’s events originally set for April through June have now been pushed back to September, October, and November. Management is standing by its 2026 guidance, but if airspace issues drag on or rebookings don’t hold, what’s currently just a timing hiccup could hit margins and cash flow harder.
Management is sticking to its 6% underlying revenue growth target for 2026, and it’s doubling down on buybacks. “We’re in the share buyback market, who wouldn’t be at these prices?” Carter said to investors. Shares trade at 764.2p, but the market doesn’t seem fully sold on the story yet. Informa
