centaur’s strategy - investis...

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

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04

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Centaur’s strategy

Financial performance

Operational review

XEIM

Summary

Agenda

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A CLEAR AND

FOCUSED

STRATEGY


Centaur’s transformation

Like other traditional media groups, Centaur needed to

transform a business built on advertising revenues.

Today, Centaur advises, informs and connects business

professionals by offering business intelligence and expertise,

consultancy and training, lead generation and events.

This is a more resilient and focused business with the

opportunity to grow .

In moving from readers to paying customers, we are building

recurring high quality revenue streams that will allow us to

generate growing profits at a higher margin and to expand

sales through new product development.

We are intent on simplifying the group, delivering operational

benefits and focusing attention on our leading brands. Over the

past six months we have accelerated this plan by exploring the

divestment of our non-core businesses.

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Executive summary: 2018 highlights

Strategic

• Strategic review resolved to focus on developing Centaur ’s information, intelligence and consulting services

primarily in the global marketing sector

• Creation of XEIM to help our clients accelerate their marketing performance

• Exploring divestment of non-core businesses

• Econsultancy and The Lawyer moved to new technology platforms

• Cost efficiencies create opportunity to create higher margin operating model

Financial

• Adjusted operating profits increased 18% to £5.2 million

• Marketing achieved £1.7m in a transitional year

• Professional services increased by 28% to £2.3m

• Financial services had a stronger year, reporting profits of £1.2m

• Revenues from continuing operations increased 9% to £70.5m ( -1.6% underlying)

• Recurring and repeatable revenues have grown to 48% (2017: 44%)

• Final dividend maintained at 1.5p to make 3p per share for the year

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STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL 6

A more focused portfolio – divestment update

• Sales process intended to create simpler, more focused group with opportunities to reduce costs and increase

margin

• Good interest in all of our non-core assets, despite Brexit -related uncertainty

• Transactions expected to complete before end of H1

FINANCIAL AND

OPERATIONAL REVIEW


Centaur at a glance

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60%

12%

28%

Revenue by Segment

XEIM (Marketing) Financial Services Professional Services

18%

25%

37%

20%

Revenue by Type

Advertising Premium Content Live Events Marketing Services


Financial results

2018 £m 20171 £m

Revenue 70.5 64.7

Other operating income 0.8 0.7

Net operating expenses (66.1) (61.3)

Adjusted Operating profit 5.2 4.1

Finance costs (0.2) (0.4)

Tax (1.0) (0.9)

Retained adjusted profit 4.0 2.8

Adjusted fully diluted EPS 2.6p 1.8p

• Adjusted operating profits +18% to £5.2m

• Cost discipline supported increase in operating profits

• Revenue increase reflects inclusion of MarketMakers

for full year

• MarketMakers earnout payment of £1.8m

1 2017 is on a continuing operations basis which excludes any revenue and profit generated by Home Interest

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Revenue mix continues to improve


Centaur now has much more predictable revenues

• 91% of Top 200 customers spent money with Centaur in

each of past 3 years (excluding MarketMakers)

• Top 19 out of 20 enterprise customers spent last year

• Recurring and repeatable revenues have grown to 48%

• Non-advertising revenues at 82%

• Print advertising at 4%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Exposure to Advertising

Exposure to Advertising %

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Exposure to Print

Exposure to Print


3.4

5.8

3.4

0.8

6.1

11

0.2

0.20.00.3

0.3

0.5

1.2

7.57.2

Live EventsHome

Interest

(discontinued

operations)

MarketMakers

Jan-July 2017

(pre-

acquisition)

71.6

2017

Reported

Corporate

Adviser

(disposed

December

2017)

2017

Underlying

AMS -

Biennial

Event 2017

2017

Continuing

64.7

71.9-1.6%

2018

Underlying

and

Reported

Premium

Content

Marketing

Services

(MarketMakers)

OtherAdvertising

70.5

Underlying revenue bridge


Underlying profit bridge

5.2

4.4

0.2

0.3

4.1

6.6

0.9

0.80.90.8

2.5

Professional

Services

Marketing 2018

Underlying

and Reported

Financial

Services

2017

Underlying

MarketMakers

Jan-July 2017

(pre-

acquisition)

AMS - Biennial

Event 2017

2017

Reported

2017

Continuing

Home Interest

(discontinued

operations)

Corporate

Adviser

(disposed

December

2017)

+18%


• The simplification of the group following

the sale of Home Interest in 2017 has

enabled further cost reductions

• Tight cost control maintained

• Divestments will provide additional

opportunities to reduce overheads and

operate more efficiently

£m

10

15

20

15.5

20.2

2016 2017

19.6

2015

17.8

-23%

2018

A simpler business with lower overheads


Cash conversion and cash flow

(£m) 2018 2017

Adjusted operating profit 5.2 6.6

Depreciation and amortisation 3.7 3.6

Movement in working capital (1.3) 3.9

Adjusted operating cash flow 7.6 14.1

Operating cash conversion 85% 138%*

*2017 cash conversion reflects recovery from cash collection problems of 2016

£m

Cash balance at 31 December 2017 4.1

MarketMakers earnout payment (1.8)

Dividends (4.3)

Capex (2.8)

Other net cash flows 5.0

Cash balance at 31 December 2018 0.1

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A transitional year for Marketing

11%

26%

30%

33%

Marketing revenues

Advertising Premium Content

Live Events Marketing Services

• Revenues held back by:

• Delayed transition to new technology platform

• Small number of larger US contracts delayed

• Growth of MarketMakers slowed in H2

• Econsultancy subscription renewals and growth have picked up since platform

transition completed in September

• Launch of Influencer Intelligence has gone well

• Festival of Marketing had an excellent year, Marketing Week brand extensions

performing well

• Rebranded as XEIM in January to support more coordinated Client sell

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Group revenues 60%

Adjusted op profit £1.7m

Revenues £42.7m


• Adjusted operating profits up 28% to £2.3m, reflecting robust

performance from The Lawyer

• 61% of revenue now comes from live events, 23% from advertising and

16% from premium content

The Lawyer

• 2018 revenue up 4% at £7.4m

• The Lawyer ’s move to scalable technology platform has encouraged more

digital usage and engagement

Exhibitions

• Business Travel Show delivered double-digit revenue growth thanks to

more exhibitors

• Employee Benefits Live and The Meeting Show also increased revenue

23%

16%61%

Advertising Premium Content Live Events

Professional Revenues

Group revenues 28%


Revenues £19.6m

Strong profit performance from Professional Services

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The Lawyer: strong and growing engagement

77%

39%

19%

25%

4%36%

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

2013 2018

£'0

00

Advertising Events Information

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Jan

-15

Feb

-15

Mar

-15

Ap

r-1

5M

ay-1

5Ju

n-1

5Ju

l-1

5A

ug-

15

Sep

-15

Oct

-15

No

v-1

5D

ec-1

5Ja

n-1

6Fe

b-1

6M

ar-1

6A

pr-

16

May

-16

Jun

-16

Jul-

16

Au

g-1

6Se

p-1

6O

ct-1

6N

ov-

16

Dec

-16

Jan

-17

Feb

-17

Mar

-17

Ap

r-1

7M

ay-1

7Ju

n-1

7Ju

l-1

7A

ug-

17

Sep

-17

Oct

-17

No

v-1

7D

ec-1

7Ja

n-1

8Fe

b-1

8M

ar-1

8A

pr-

18

May

-18

Jun

-18

Jul-

18

Au

g-1

8Se

p-1

8O

ct-1

8N

ov-

18

Dec

-18

MAT Digital Performance

Digital Information Actual Revenue % Growth Digital Information MAT

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A leading media brand for the global legal services market,

positioned for growth

• Information revenues up 19%

• Digital billings up 50%

In 2018, The Lawyer received a full year of benefits

following transition from weekly to monthly magazines and

a digital platform refresh

• Digital usage up 25% yoy since launch of new

platform

• Successful launch of Litigation Tracker in January

2019

88 of the top 100 UK and US law firms are subscribers


(60%)

(40%)

(20%)

0%

20%

40%

Q116

Q216

Q316

Q416

Q117

Q217

Q317

Q417

Q118

Q218

Q318

Q418

Money Marketing Ads Growth %

(60%)

(40%)

(20%)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Q116

Q216

Q316

Q416

Q117

Q217

Q317

Q417

Q118

Q218

Q318

Q418

Mortgage Strategy Ads Growth %

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44%

38%

18%

Advertising Premium Content Live Events

Group revenues 12%


Revenues £8.2m

Financial Services stronger

Operating profit strengthened to £1.3m

• Performance bolstered by consolidation and focus on core brands: Money

Marketing and Mortgage Strategy

• Strong digital advertising performance and uplift in display advertising

Adjusted operating profit margin improved from 39% to 43%

As expected, Tax Briefs experienced a year of lower revenues due to a change

to a single budget announcement after two budgets in 2017

Financial Services Revenues


XEIM was created to offer our customers excellence in marketing –

by advising, informing and connecting marketing professionals

Market dynamics

• Marketing analytics have grown by 41% over the last 3 years to

$9.4bn*

• Social media marketing and monitoring has increased by 71%

over the last 3 years to $3.6bn*

• The global B2B Media & Business Information sector has grown

by 13% over the last 3 years to $4.8bn*

• Content marketing has risen by 11% over the last 3 years to

$10.3bn*

• Audience measurement has increased by 8% over the last 3

years to $35.8bn*

*Source: Outsell

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XEIM is focused on a large, growing and global market


• ADVISE how to improve performance and ROI

• INFORM using data, content and insight

• CONNECT to specific communities

Events &

Experiential

Email / Social

Native Content

Programmatic

Training

Strategic

Consultancy

Data & Lead

Generation

3rd Party

Optimization

LOYAL

CUSTOMERS

Research

Market reports

& data

Thought

Leadership

Briefings &

Webinars

CLIENTS

Advise, Inform, Connect

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XEIM’s growth potential

Strategy to drive profitable growth for XEIM:

• Grow digital information products globally and

domestically

• Expand e-learning and Mini MBA series

• Expand enterprise accounts

• Scale core events

• Programme of cost reduction in central overheads

• Low profit and declining assets will be discontinued

By 2022, XEIM has the potential to deliver:

• Double-digit revenue growth

• Double-digit profit growth

• Ebitda margin of >20%

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

H1 2017 H2 2017 H1 2018 H2 2018

Renewal rates

Volume

-40%-35%-30%-25%-20%-15%-10%

-5%0%5%

10%15%

II

II New Business % Growth 2016 – 2018

(12 month MAT)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

FY16A FY17A FY18O

e-Learning

Bespoke Research

Market Reports:Individual

Market Reports:Subscription

The Lawyer:Subscriptions

Investment in digital platforms driving growth

• The Lawyer completed a refresh to give the business a new multi -channel and scalable digital platform

• Digital usage is up 25% year-on-year

• Launch of Influencer Intelligence’s new service, now fully combining data, intelligence and global trends

• Trajectory of new business ended 2018 at +11% year -on-year, Q1 has started well

• Traffic and usage are strong

• Econsultancy moved to a new, scalable technology platform, delivering product improvements, better customer journeys

and greater sales focus – resulting in increased usage and higher renewal rates

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIALSTRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL 24

2016 2017 2018

£m

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%

- 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00

CA

P M

arg

in %

Revenue £

m

Revenues Linear (CAP Margin)

31%

15%

15%

My ‘go to’ brand

Marketing Week’s successful innovation continues to deliver

Marketing Week

• Trusted source of industry expertise and intelligence

• 31% of customers say Marketing Week is their ‘go to’ brand

• A ‘launch pad’ for new product development

Festival of Marketing

• In 2018: 12 live stages of content and celebrated speakers

• More than 4,000 attendees

• Doubled profit contribution

Mini MBA

• Developed in 2016 with Mark Ritson

• Doubled number of delegates

• Revenues grew by +68%

• Satisfaction scores remain in excess of 90%

• Further MBA launches planned


Building XEIM’s capability

MarketMakers

• Acquired in 2017 to enhance lead generation capability

• UK’s No.1 B2B telemarketing agency

• Includes Really, award-winning B2B agency with data

science capability

Oystercatchers

• Acquired in 2016

• New strategy drove +10% profits year-on-year

• Oystercatchers product innovation includes:

• Modern Marketing Pitch

• New content platform for Club members with MW

• New awards evening


Enterprise clients increasingly important to XEIM

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Strong focus on the needs of our largest clients

• 75% of Top 100 customers have spent money with the business for 3 years running

• 26% increase in year-on-year spend across XEIM’s Top 100 customers

• 17.7% of XEIM clients now buy multiple brands


In summary

• Centaur is now a more resilient and focused business with the opportunity to grow

• We will continue to simplify the Group and focus attention on our leading brands

• Creation of XEIM helps our clients accelerate their marketing performance

• Cost efficiencies create opportunity to create higher margin operating model

• Further detail on guidance at the half year


APPENDIX

APPENDIX


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50

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150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Advertising B2B Content CustomerExperience

Data andAnalytics

Ecommerce Email andEcrm

Innovation andTrends

Mobile SearchMarketing

Social Strategy

Topic Hub Page Traffic (page views)

Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Q4 2018

Since new platform launch, traffic has increased significantly to all high value content areas

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Increases in Econsultancy product usage

centaur’s strategy - investis...

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