The Italian Exhibition Group SpA (IEG) board of directors has approved the draft financial statement for 2017 and the consolidated statement.
The consolidated financial statement as of 31 December 2017 approved: IEG’s consolidated turnover was EUR130.7m (4.7% increase from the IEG pro-forma1 turnover of EUR124.8m in 2016); the gross operating margin (EBITDA2) was EUR23.2m (5.4% increase on the 22m of 2016); consolidated net profit pertaining to IEG was EUR9.1m (42.1% increase on the 6.4m of 2016). The net financial position of the group has a negative value of around EUR51.3m, compared EUR40.5m in 2016.
The growth of the debt burden, less than expected, was due to the policy of dividend distribution (over EUR10.5m ordinary and extraordinary dividends in favour of shareholders during 2017) and EUR23.9m of investments made. (The turnover: debt level ratio is excellent.)
In 2017 IEG hosted an overall total of 59 exhibitions, 280 conferences and events, 15,649 exhibitors and 2,648,675 visitors in its expo and conference facilities in Rimini and Vicenza. These figures position IEG in second place among Italy’s trade fair centres for turnover and first as far as exhibitions organised directly and business profitability are concerned.
The result is a higher turnover than IEG had indicated in the budget for 2017.
Profits also met the objectives and expectations for the distribution of dividends to shareholders are being met: during today’s board meeting, IEG Board of Directors deliberated a proposal of an ordinary dividend of EUR18 cents per share (the same as distributed last year) for a total of EUR5.5m, confirming the stability that shareholders expected.
IEG management – supported by the results of the first quarter of 2018 – is therefore confident that it will achieve the ambitious results forecast by the budget.
