‘Consistent’ T&F likely to hit 2% growth target for 2019

Parent company Informa has said Taylor & Francis “continues to perform consistently”, expressing confidence that it will hit its annual target of 2% underlying growth for the full year.

Informa made the comments in a newly released 10-month trading update, covering the year to 31st October. Underlying growth for T&F thus far stands at 1.8%, it reported. The company noted “a backdrop of robust underlying demand for specialist knowledge and ongoing evolution in product formats and distribution models.”

Informa said of T&F: “Our approach is to remain flexible, balancing customer needs with maintaining the overall quality and integrity of our content. This strategy continues to deliver steady, modest growth, underpinned by robust and predictable subscription revenues and good growth in Open Access services.” It noted: “Books revenue continues to be more transactional in nature and, after delivering strong growth in 2018 on the back of our Operational Improvement Programme, 2019 has a particularly tough comparable.”   

Underlying revenue growth for the Informa Group as a whole stood at 2.8% to end October, ahead of the "significant, seasonally stronger November/December trading period,” the company reported. Group chief executive Stephen A Carter said: “After 10 months trading in 2019, despite an unpredictable economic/geo-political backdrop, the enlarged Informa Group continues to demonstrate resilience and performance, remaining on track for a sixth consecutive year of growth in underlying revenue, profit, adjusted earnings and cashflow."