- FTSE 250 company Ascential has seen its share price rise by more than 20% in the past year.
Bottom-up actions rose on Thursday after the events group revealed an £850 million capital return to shareholders after beating analysts’ forecasts for last year.
The capital return, which will be achieved through a combination of takeover bids, special dividends and market buyback programs, is being funded by the sale of Digital Commerce and WGSN for £1.2 billion sterling made since the end of the year.
FTSE 250-listed Ascential, a business-to-business exhibition and festival specialist, has announced it will distribute a special dividend of at least £450m.
This should be declared after the completion of a tender offer and accompanied by a reverse stock split.
Rising: Shares of London-listed exhibition and festival specialist Ascential have risen by more than 20% over the past year.
There will be a takeover offer to acquire up to £300 million of Ascential shares, with the price range expected to be finalized at the time of publication of the circular to shareholders.
The board expects the upper end of this range to not exceed 331 pence, representing a 10% premium to the closing price of 301 pence on March 20, 2023.
Ascential said revenue from continuing operations rose 13 per cent year-on-year to £206.4 million last year, with strong growth in marketing offsetting a 1 per cent rise in technology. financial.
Adjusted profit before claims was £56.4 million for the year, up 17 per cent on the previous year, supported by a 1.2 percentage point rise in margins at 27.3 percent.
The group said its business costs from this year would be 50% lower than in 2023, at £13 million a year.
Boss Philip Thomas said: “Following our strategic review, Ascential is now an events-led business with a compelling strategic framework, built around two of the world’s leading events platforms.
“The sales of Digital Commerce and WGSN announced in October 2023 gave us the opportunity to return value to our shareholders equivalent to nearly 90% of Ascential’s market capitalization prior to the announcement date, and our shareholders own also now a company that has our world’s leading events firmly at its core and sole focus.
Shares in the group rose 2.99 per cent or 9.00p to 310.00p on Thursday, after rising more than 20 per cent in the last year.
