Taylor & Francis delivers underlying revenue growth as pay to publish arm flourishes

Taylor & Francis saw underlying revenue growth of 3.5% during the first five months of 2022, a trading update from parent company Informa has shown, with a particularly strong performance for the company’s pay-to-publish arm.

Overall Inform, which sold its Pharma Intelligence business this month to to New York investment fund Warburg Pincus for £1.9bn, reported it had seen underlying revenue growth of 40% in the first five months of 2022. The firm said it was on track for the upper-end of the full-year guidance range it issued in March, with revenue of £2.2bn to £2.3bn and adjusted operating profit of £470m to £490m.

It attributed this to a combination of “strong forward visibility on subscriptions revenues in Taylor & Francis and exhibitor and delegate bookings in live and on-demand events, and favourable currency trends.”

When it came to Taylor & Francis the trading update reported consistent performances in its pay-to-read subscriptions and advanced learning offering. 

The report said: “In pay-to-read, subscription renewals remain high, underpinned by continued strong volumes of research submissions, which is translating into consistent levels of validated and trusted specialist subscription content. 

“In advanced learning, increased discoverability of content and continued strength in e-books is delivering solid growth, most notably in our professional and self-learning categories."

In pay-to-publish, the firm said its investments "to broaden our range of services, improve customer marketing and drive submission rates, continue to deliver benefits, with further strong revenue growth so far in 2022”.

It went on to say that continued expansion in the pay-to-publish area, widening the market beyond university libraries into deeper global research and development funding, underpinned the group’s underlying growth target of 4% across its academic markets business by 2024.

Stephen Carter, Informa Group chief executive, said: "Our 2021-2024 Growth Acceleration Plan II is delivering growth, portfolio focus and shareholder returns. Today we are reporting robust and consistent trading and are reconfirming guidance, which combined with strong divestment returns allows us to expand our share buy-back programme to £725m, while significantly strengthening our balance sheet.

"We are confident in our ability to deliver on our forward growth ambitions, underpinned by the resilience of our subscription businesses, the continuing return of live and on-demand events, and our growing range of digital services."