Ascential shares jump 20% as publishing group raises guidance and unveils plans to create digital arm
- Ascential’s annual revenue expected to be above forecasts
- The group’s share price has fallen more than 26% in the past year
Publishing group Ascential has revealed plans to create its digital branch.
Ascential unveiled the plans to shareholders on Wednesday, as it said it now expects full-year revenue and profit to beat market forecasts.
The group, which specializes in e-commerce insights, analytics and optimization, said it recorded double-digit revenue growth across all four segments last year.
Total revenue for the year ending December 31, 2022 is expected to be at least £520 million, up from £349 million a year earlier and ahead of consensus expectations of between 479 and 516 million pounds.
Ascential shares rose sharply today and rose 23.17% or 48.20p to 256.20p this afternoon, after falling more than 26% last year.
Looking ahead: Ascential has revealed that its revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the full year are expected to exceed market expectations
Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA is expected to be at least £118m, up from £89m in 2021 and ahead of the consensus range of £91-115m.
The group has decided to spin off its global digital commerce assets into an independent US-listed company.
He also plans to put WGSN up for sale, while his event business will continue with a UK listing under the name Ascential.
Ascential President Scott Forbes and CEO Duncan Painter will serve as the publicly traded digital commerce company’s president and chief financial officer, respectively.
Mr. Painter said: “Ascential had a strong year-end, with each of our segments delivering double-digit revenue growth in 2022.
“The performance of Digital Commerce in particular, given the difficult environment, illustrates the clear competitive advantage we offer to brands operating in marketplaces, where there remains a rare and significant growth opportunity.
“Product Design delivered another strong performance where its record customer retention rate speaks to the value it delivers to its customers.
“While the economic outlook for 2023 remains unclear, our events businesses demonstrated extremely high levels of customer engagement in 2022, reinforcing their industry leadership and which translated into strong levels of new bookings for 2023.”
Neil Wilson, Head of Markets at CMC Markets UK, said: “It’s not the only company on the FTSE 250 where the sum of its parts was/was worth more than the whole.” The numbers also look good with double-digit revenue growth across all four segments.
