According to UBM:
UBM performed well in Q1, in line with the Board’s expectations. Growth in Events was as anticipated, with the largest events continuing to drive performance. There was a strong performance from Game Developer Conference, solid growth at Seatrade Cruise Global and Enterprise Connect, and Ecobuild revenue was up over the prior year. UBM Advanstar’s MAGIC Marketplace events which ran in February performed well, in line with expectations.
The performance of Other Marketing Services was as anticipated and PR Newswire performed satisfactorily.
The integration of Advanstar is progressing well with synergies in line with expectations. In March we brought together UBM’s and Advanstar’s US medical, dental, veterinary, nutrition and pharma brands into a single business unit, UBM Life Sciences.
Good progress has been made in the implementation of the ‘Events First’ strategy. During the period we have rationalised a number of smaller, less profitable or loss-making events, discontinued various non-core technology OMS activities in the US and India, and have made good progress in a number of operational excellence initiatives.
On 22 April 2015 UBM signed a new £400 million five year syndicated Revolving Credit Facility (‘RCF’) with our core relationship banks, replacing the existing £300m RCF and paying down the $100m Bridge Facility put in place for the acquisition of Advanstar.
The outlook for the full year is unchanged.
