Hyve Group PLC (LON:HYVE) said it ran 12 in-person events in Europe and Asia in the first half of the year but revenue remains well below last year’s levels, with uncertainty persisting.
Sales for the six months to March 31 are expected to come in at £10mln, down from £96mln a year ago.
READ: Ascential losses widen as events and advisory business hit by Coronavirus restrictions
The estimate includes revenue from Groceryshop Spring Meetup which performed 10% ahead of expectations.
The event ran last month following the acquisition of Retail Meetup in December and recorded 8,884 online meetings taking place over three days.
The group has one further Meetup event scheduled, Shoptalk Meetup for Women in May, and said online events are scheduled to be complementary to in-person events, giving Shoptalk and Groceryshop the opportunity to meet customer needs at multiple points through the year.
The organiser also got £15.9mln of further insurance claims last month, with insurance proceeds totalling £71mln to date. Net debt at period-end is expected to be £92mln.
Hyve also announced the disposal of ITECA LLP, the operating company for 25 of the group's non-core, regionally focused events in Kazakhstan, to ICA (JV) Limited.
It expects to receive between £4.8mln and £5.8mln over five to seven years based on performance.
Ascential is a ‘buy’
Things may be looking up for the events industry pivoting to digital commerce, analysts at Shore Capital commented in a note on Ascential PLC (LON:ASCL).
“We believe this market offers a substantial opportunity which Ascential is increasingly well-equipped to capture. We also expect the group’s live event brands to bounce back strongly when conditions allow,” the broker said, upgrading the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.
Ascential has confirmed that, as anticipated, it will not be possible to stage the physical elements of its Cannes Lions festival scheduled for June.
The event will run as a fully digital experience as in 2020, when over 80,000 people attended.
Both Hyve and Ascential dipped 1% to 129.34p and 347.6p respectively on Thursday morning.