Informa PLC (LSE:INF) shares rose toward the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Thursday after the business events group reported strong trading and reassured investors that it remained on track to meet full-year targets.
The exhibitions, conferences, publishing and data group grew underlying revenue 6.4% in the first five months of the year, with performance supported by both its B2B Events and Academic Markets divisions.
Visibility was claimed for more than $4 billion of revenue for 2026 based on traded and booked business, supporting expectations for revenue growth broadly in line with previous guidance of around 6%.
Informa also reiterated its forecast for double-digit underlying growth.
B2B Events recorded underlying revenue growth of 7.6% in the first five months, with more than $1.5 billion of business already traded. Guidance was reaffirmed for more than 7% underlying growth in the division this year, helped by strong performances in Europe and North America.
Academic Markets saw underlying growth of 5.5%, excluding non-recurring data access contracts, with analysts saying the performance was stronger than expected.
Investors were also encouraged by an unusually early indication of visibility into the first half of 2027, with around $600 million already secured through rebookings and recurring events.
Panmure Liberum said that while the company had not reiterated its full-year revenue growth guidance, the business looked on track for the roughly 6%, give or take, that it had previously guided to.
This in turn, means visibility on more than $4 billion for 2026 based on traded and booked work. The broker added that the company did reiterate its guidance for double-digit underlying growth.
"The flex is the timings around the Dubai business, which has less impact at earnings level due to the significant minority," Panmure added.
Its analysts said it was unusual that Informa has provided a visibility measure at an early stage for H1, which was underpinned by good rebooks for Q1 ME shows and biennials/annuals.
"Overall Informa looks to be progressing well despite the ME disruption, which has been well managed and is on track to deliver a strong performance in 2026 further supporting our thesis it can deliver consistent mid-single digit revenue growth that supports a re-rating to match best-in-class professional media peers," the broker said.
