Ascential shares rose on Thursday after the events group unveiled a capital return of £850million to shareholders after beating analysts’ forecasts for last year.
The capital return, which will be delivered through a combination of tender offer, special dividend and on-market buyback programmes, is funded by the £1.2billion disposal of Digital Commerce and WGSN completed since the year-end.
FTSE 250-listed Ascential, which is a business-to-business exhibitions and festivals specialist, said it would dish out a a special dividend of at least £450million.
This is expected to be declared following completion of a tender offer and accompanied by a share consolidation.
On the up: Shares in London-listed exhibitions and festivals specialist Ascential have risen over 20% in the last year
There will be a tender offer to acquire up to £300million of Ascential shares, with the price range to be finalised at the time of the publication of the shareholder circular.
The board expects the higher end of this range to be no greater than 331p, representing a 10 per cent premium to the closing price of 301p on 20 March 2023.
Ascential said revenue from continuing operations increased 13 per cent year-on-year to £206.4million last year, with strong growth marketing making up for a 1 per cent rise in Financial Technology.
Adjusted earnings before nasties came in at £56.4million for the year, up 17 per cent on the previous year, bolstered by a 1.2 percentage-point rise in margins to 27.3 per cent.
The group said its corporate costs from this year onwards will be 50 per cent lower than in 2023, at £13million per year.
Boss Philip Thomas, said: ‘Following our strategic review, Ascential is now a focused events-led business with a compelling strategic framework, built around two of the world’s leading event platforms.
‘The sales of Digital Commerce and WGSN announced in October 2023 have given us the opportunity to return to our shareholders a value equivalent to almost 90 per cent of Ascential’s market capitalisation prior to the announcement date, and our shareholders also now own a business that has our world-leading events firmly at its heart and sole focus.’
Shares in the group were up 3.65 per cent or 11.00p to 312.00p on Thursday afternoon, having risen over 20 per cent in the last year.
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