RX Revenue Growth Hindered by Middle East Conflict
Stock. adobe. comThe conflict in the Middle East weighed on first-half growth in exhibitions revenue for RX, the exhibitions arm of Relx, which reported first half results today. Revenue for the division rose 6%. . .
Stock. adobe. comThe conflict in the Middle East weighed on first-half growth in exhibitions revenue for RX, the exhibitions arm of Relx, which reported first half results today. Revenue for the division rose 6% to £575 million, compared with 8% growth in the first half of last year. Reported adjusted operating profit increased 2%, down from 9% growth a year earlier. Middle East exhibitions represent about 3% to 4% of divisional revenue, but the bigger impact came from the disruption of travel from and through the Middle East. “We have a number of quite significantly international events elsewhere in the world, and the participants from the Middle East or people traveling through the Middle East, and that had that had some effect,” Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff said on a call to discuss the results. “That’s why it was just moderated a little from that in the first half. ”In a statement, the company provided the following outlook: “Aside from uncertainty around remaining events in the Middle East, we continue to expect strong underlying revenue growth with an improvement in adjusted operating margin over the prior full year. ”Several events in the Middle East have been rescheduled to the second half. “We are still planning to run most of them, but we have to acknowledge there is uncertainty around them and exactly how they perform,” Luff said on the call. The adjusted operating margin for the first half was 39. 3% to last year’s 40. 3%, still the highest among the different divisions at RX. Face-to-face revenue represents 11% of the company’s total. North America represents 26% of the total; Europe 38%; and rest of world 36%. About 73% of revenue comes from exhibitors and the remainder from visitors and other. Christiana Sciaudone is a long-time journalist who has covered everything from equities to corrupt politicians and the business of fashion to environmental issues. She's now loving covering digital media and events with Jacob. Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Vogue Business, Bloomberg and others. Email her at[email protected].