The Board of Directors of Italian Exhibition Group S.p.A (IEG), a company listed last June on the Milan Stock Exchange organized and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A., approved, on today’s date, the half-yearly financial report as at June 30, 2019.

Main consolidated results in the first half of 2019

The total revenues of the IEG Group amounted to € 99,932 thousand, growth of 29.3% over the € 77,309 thousand in the same period of the previous year. This result augments the significant growth already recorded at the end of 2018 (+ 22% over the previous year) and confirms IEG’s ability in development and integration projects.

EBITDA1 , following the application of IFRS 16, which generated a positive effect of approximately € 1.9 million, and EBIT reached € 26,575 thousand and € 17,691 thousand respectively, growth compared to the 2018 values, which did not reflect the effects of IFRS 16, which stood at € 17,039 and € 11,801 thousand respectively.

Without taking account of the effects of the aforementioned accounting standard, EBITDA1 and EBIT therefore recorded increases of + 44.8% and + 49.6% compared to the same period in the previous year, also confirming the further strengthening in the ability to manage operating costs and stabilise the efficiencies already achieved in the second part of the previous year.

The Group’s net result, albeit feeling the effects of the higher financial management expenses due to the application of IFRS 16 amounting to € 330 thousand and other expenses connected to the figurative payables from put options, stood at € 10,679 thousand, growth of 40.2% compared to € 7,618 thousand in the first half of 2018.

As at June 30th, 2019, the net cash financial situation, therefore without taking into account the higher payables of roughly € 32 million as a result of IFRS 16, financial payables for any future put options of € 15.8 million and derivative financial instruments for € 5.9 million, totalled € 66.5 million compared to € 66.9 million as at June 30th, 2018 and € 49.2 million as at December 31st, 2018. The latter increase is due primarily to the changes in Net Working Capital resulting from the seasonal cycle (around € 4.6 million), investments (€ 5.7 million) and the distribution of ordinary dividends which took place in May (€ 5.6 million).

The consolidated shareholders’ equity as at June 30th, 2019 came to approximately € 105.2 million, compared to € 102.5 million as at December 31st, 2018.

Results by business segment in the first half of 2019

The significant growth in revenues in the period derives from the positive results achieved by each business line and the increase of roughly € 22.6 million compared to the same period of the previous year is due to both the purely organic growth (up € 7.4 million equal to + 9.6%) and the change in the scope of consolidation. The latter takes account, for an amount of around € 15.2 million, of the revenues resulting from the acquisitions of stand fitting activities carried out last year (FB international in the US in March and Prostand – Colorcom in Italy in September 2018) and the arithmetic sum (with balance close to zero) of multiyear events or held in a different half from that of the previous year.

In particular, the Group’s “core business”, comprised of the direct organisation of trade show events, accounted for 53.7% of total revenues during the half, and recorded an increase of 6.6% compared to the previous year. This increase is attributable to the main leading products in the “Food & Beverage” and “Jewellery & Fashion” categories. The seasonal nature of the trade show calendar has a negligible impact and relates, in particular, to the Koinè event (biennial event in odd years) in February 2019.

The Convention Events business line, which accounts for 7.6% of total Group revenues, recorded an increase of 26% (up € 1.6 million) compared to the first half of 2018, thanks to the holding of larger conventions in terms of the number of participants, convention areas used and additional services required.

Revenues from related services, such as stand fitting activities, catering and cleaning, account for 35.2% of the Group’s total revenues and essentially doubled compared to the first half of the previous year (+97.8%). The growth in the revenues from catering services, driven by the development of trade show events organised and the management of new activities, was augmented by the higher revenues recorded in the event preparation services segment as a result of the already mentioned acquisitions.

Business outlook

The results achieved by IEG in the first half, although it should be noted that trade show and convention event activities are highly seasonal in nature, with the subsequent difficulty in comparing the various quarters of the year with one another, confirm the success of the organisational and management decisions made by the Company and allow the management to confirm the planned consolidation and growth objectives.

The Corporate Officer responsible for drafting the company’s accounting documents, Roberto Bondioli, hereby declares, pursuant to paragraph 2 of art. 154-bis of the Consolidated Law on Finance, that the accounting information contained in this press release corresponds to the documentary results, the books and the accounting records.

The Half-yearly Financial Report as at June 30th, 2019, approved on today’s date by the Board of Directors of Italian Exhibition Group S.p.A., will be made available, together with the Independent Auditors’ Report, on the Company’s website www.iegexpo.it in the Investor Relations Section, as well as in the company’s registered office and on the authorised storage system 1INFO Storage available at the address www.1info.it managed by 1INFO – Computershare S.p.A. – Via Lorenzo Mascheroni 19, 20145 Milan.

The results of the first half of 2019 will be illustrated in a conference call with the Financial Community set for today at 17.30 (CET). The presentation will be available in the Investor Relations section of the website www.iegexpo.it from 17.15.

FOCUS ON ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA

Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), listed on the Milan Stock Exchange organized and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A., is the Italian leader in the organization of trade expos and one of the main players in Europe in the expo and conference sector, with its venues in Rimini and Vicenza. The IEG Group stands out for the organization of events in five categories: Food & Beverage; Jewellery & Fashion; Tourism, Hospitality & Lifestyle; Wellness, Sports and Leisure; Green & Technology. In recent years, IEG has launched an important process of foreign expansion, also by means of joint ventures inked with local players (e.g. in the United States, Arab Emirates and China). IEG ended the 2018 financial year with a total consolidated turnover of 159.7 million euros, an EBITDA of 30.8 million and a net consolidated profit of 10.8 million euros. In 2018, IEG held an overall total of 53 exhibitions organized or hosted and 181 conferences events in its Rimini and Vicenza expo and conference venues.

MEDIA CONTACT: ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP S.P.A. Investor Relator Roberto Bondioli |[email protected] | +39 0541 744642 Press Contact Elisabetta Vitali |Head of media relations & corporate communication | [email protected] | +39 0541 744228