Trading Outlook
All three of Informa's divisions and revenue streams have started the year well and are trading in line with our expectations.
Publishing is positioned well for 2008. Renewal rates of over 95% and the addition of 300 new academic journals in the current year combined with content driven price increases underpins both revenue and profit growth in the Academic and Scientific division. In addition, an already robust pipeline of books is further bolstered by the publication of the 5th edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell, our leading book title.
Electronic workflow solutions in the Academic & Scientific, Professional and Commercial divisions are all seeing strong client retention and new business wins. Datamonitor in particular has begun the year well; new sales recorded in January were 24% ahead of the same month last year.
As a result of the Datamonitor acquisition, we expect almost 60% of Informa's 2008 profits to come from publishing. 80% of these profits are derived from our subscription products. Almost half of these revenues are already banked. Publishing revenue overall (recognised and deferred) at the end of January accounted for almost a third of expected full year revenue.
The Performance Improvement (PI) businesses have had a solid start to the year, underpinned by 2007 revenue retention of over 90% and good international sales growth. Non US revenue in January is over 20% higher than a year ago.
In December Omega, the financial service specialists who had a weaker second half of 2007, signed two large contracts with US banks both of whom had been significantly impacted by the sub prime turmoil, looking to rebound quickly with reinvigorated market presence. Omega's pipeline is currently over 20% ahead of the same point last year. Total value of opportunities across all PI pipelines supports our growth expectations for this year.
The events businesses have also started the year well. Three of our largest and most established events were held in the first weeks of the year each in a different sector and each achieving the most successful results in their history. SuperReturn, the world's largest Private Equity event now in its 11th year, has had record delegate attendance and sponsorship and exhibition (SpEx) revenues. Arab Health, the premier Middle East healthcare show, occupied the entire Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre, covering more than 60,000sqm of gross space. Energie, the German national energy event, attracted more delegates then ever before and increased SpEx revenue by 11%. Newer events, such as Ukraine Investment, were also highly successful.
Event revenues (recognised and deferred) are currently significantly ahead of this same point last year. Over 20% of 2008 expected delegate revenues are already booked. At our 2007 events we secured on-site renewals of some 75% of our SpEx clients for this year's events. This strong revenue renewal, coupled with good early new sales with deferred revenues running at double digit growth on prior year, means that we now have firm bookings on a substantial portion of our budgeted 2008 SpEx revenues.
We are of course aware of the current uncertainty in the financial markets, but at this point the board sees no reason to alter its expectations that Informa will deliver another strong performance in 2008.