Informa launches share sale, suspends dividend

(Reuters) - Informa, the world's largest organiser of business conferences and exhibitions, launched an issue of shares worth 20% of capital and suspended its dividend on Thursday, as the coronavirus forced the cancellation or rescheduling of hundreds of events.

The company, which is also applying for the Bank of England's COVID Corporate Finance Facility, said the placing of up to 250.3 million new shares would increase its total liquidity to more than 2.3 billion pounds ($2.87 billion).

The impact on its events-related businesses, which generate around 65% of revenue, has worsened significantly since the initial first-quarter disruption in Mainland China, with no events taking place in April, the company said.

Informa expects this reduced level of activity to stretch through the second and much of the third quarter, "with a gradual and phased recovery from Q3 into the final quarter of the year".

It has rescheduled 60 large and around 350 small events, representing 460 million pounds in revenue, to the last four months of 2020. It has also rephased or cancelled more than 60 events that would have brought in revenue in excess of 150 million pounds.

Informa said it has already implemented a range of cost control actions, including reviewing contractors and consultants, pausing recruitment and management pay cuts, securing more than 130 million pounds in annualised savings so far.

The company, which also has academic publishing and business intelligence operations, said it is in constructive talks on a covenant waiver for its U.S. private placement debt.

It has withdrawn its 2019 final dividend and intends to review the policy later in 2020.

($1 = 0.8020 pounds)

(Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)