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Informa, the UK publishing and exhibitions company, has struck a deal with Microsoft worth more than $10mn in its first year to give access to its data and improve the US technology group’s artificial intelligence systems.
Informa said on Wednesday that the data access agreement, which runs from 2024 to 2027, “will extend the use of AI within our business and underlines the unique value of our intellectual property”.
The deal is the latest to be struck between a media group and an AI developer, providing new tools and systems for Informa while also helping the tech group train its models on specialist data.
Such agreements are also proving useful for media groups to hit their financial targets. The combination of Informa’s strong operating performance and the Microsoft partnership meant the London-listed company was on track to hit the upper end of its market guidance on revenues, adjusted operating profit and free cash flow, it said.
Informa’s chief executive Stephen Carter said the company had a “significant body of data and content that renews annually”.
Thomas Singlehurst, analyst at Citi, said investors would be encouraged by the deal with Microsoft, which showed the value of relevant data in specialist areas, and highlighted the recurring nature of the Microsoft payments.
Informa, which has benefited from the post-Covid bounce back in global events, said its business was performing well across all major regions, including North America, Asia and India, and the Middle East and Africa. It pointed to the success of events such as Arab Health, World of Concrete and aviation show MRO Americas.
Carter said the company had grown every quarter since hitting a low point during the pandemic, which shut down the global events industry for many months. He said the events business was “performing extremely strongly”. Shares in Informa rose almost 3 per cent on Wednesday morning to £8.50.
Informa has boosted its 2024 share buyback programme by about 50 per cent to £500mn as a result. Carter said the company would also continue to look at using a strong financial position to consider further acquisitions.
It is now expecting revenues to reach nearly £3.5bn in the current financial year, up from £3.2bn in 2023, and has forecast adjusted operating profits close to £970mn, up from £853.8mn the previous year.
The company has previously proposed creating a separate Nasdaq-listed affiliated group after agreeing to merge its digital businesses with US group TechTarget. Informa will own a majority stake in the business after the deal closes, which is expected later this year.
Carter said he was still comfortable with the wider Informa group being listed in London despite shareholder pressure on rivals such as Pearson to move to the US.
