London, March 30, 2026, 19:09 BST
Informa Plc bought back 1.897 million shares last week for cancellation, a Monday filing showed, as the London-listed events and academic publishing group kept up its 2026 return programme. It paid a volume-weighted average 756.55 pence a share, and its share count will fall to 1.274 billion after settlement. 1
The filing shows the company is still buying at pace after it told investors on March 12 that it would raise this year’s commitment to £250 million from an initial £200 million. Chief Executive Stephen Carter said strong cash generation and weak equity values justified the step-up. 2
That matters now because Informa is trying to back its stock while holding to a 2026 underlying revenue growth target of around 6%. The company said more than £2 billion of this year’s revenue, or more than 45% of target, is already paid, booked or committed, and finance chief Gareth Wright said confidence in cash flow “enables us to step up the buybacks.” 2
The shares were last quoted at 745.8 pence late on Monday, down 0.08% on the day and about 25% below the 1,000 pence high hit in November. Carter gave a sharper version of the same argument earlier this month when he asked analysts: “who wouldn’t be at these prices?” 3
Informa reported 2025 revenue of £4.04 billion, adjusted operating profit of £1.14 billion and free cash flow of £884.8 million. Total cash returns to shareholders last year reached £620 million through dividends and buybacks. 2
Management says 2026 has started to plan, helped by strong trading at healthcare and food events including HIMSS and Gulfood and by solid renewals at Taylor & Francis. Informa is targeting more than 7% underlying growth this year in B2B Live Events, its biggest division. 2
But the main swing factor sits in the Middle East. Informa said this month it had pushed events across more than 10 brands in the region into later months of 2026 because of the Iran war, and Carter said there are “some fixed costs that we’ll have to swallow” because some shows were already in flight. 4
The region is central to the growth case. Informa gets about a quarter of its revenue from India, the Middle East and Africa and has tied its expansion there to a venture with Dubai World Trade Centre. The company says around 40% of IMEA revenue has already traded or relates to brands in business-as-usual locations, with the rest rescheduled into the last four months of the year. 4
For now, the board is leaning on cash and buying time. The latest weekly repurchases amount to about £14.4 million at the disclosed average price, only a slice of the wider plan but a clear sign the company is still prepared to retire stock while it trades well below last year’s highs. 5
Informa said it will keep updating the market on the buyback every week. 1
