Arena Events Group has announced its audited results for the 15 months ending 31 March 2020. To better reflect the seasonality of the business the Group has changed its year-end to March, with a transitional 15 month period containing two seasonally quiet calendar Q1 periods. Unaudited results for the 12 months to 31 March 2020 are also shown to assist comparability.
Fifteen-month period ended 31 March 2020 (audited)
- Group revenue increased by 36% to £183.2m (12m Dec 18: £135.0m)
- Adjusted EBITDA grew by 9% to £13.2m (12m Dec 18: £12.1m)
- Operating loss of £19.6m, after goodwill impairment of £16.1m; (12m Dec 18: £nil)
- Loss after taxation of £22.9m (12m Dec 18: £2.0m loss)
- Adjusted EPS loss of 3.0p (12m Dec 18: 3.7p profit) includes two loss-making Jan-Mar periods
- Basic EPS loss of 15.0p (12m Dec 18: 1.6p loss)
- Period-end cash £5.8m (Dec 18: £7.5m)
- No final dividend proposed, total dividend for the fifteen-month period of 0.25 pence per
share (12m Dec 2018: 1.5 pence)
Twelve-month period ended 31 March 2020 (unaudited)
- Revenue increased by 19% to £160.6m (12m Dec 18: £135.0m)
- Adjusted EBITDA(1) increased by 36% to £16.5m (12m Dec 18: £12.1m)
- Operating loss of £13.1m, after goodwill impairment of £16.1m (12m Dec 18: £nil)
IFRS16:
- The full impact of IFRS16 has been reflected in the above results, resulting in an increase of £5.2m EBITDA in the fifteen-months ended 31 March 2020 (12m Mar 20: £4.2m) and additional depreciation of £4.7m in the fifteen-months (12m Mar 20: £3.7m). IFRS16 is excluded from all 2018 comparative results
2019/20 Operational Highlights:
- UK – delivered structures, seating and furniture at major events including the Cheltenham
Festival, the Open Golf at Royal Portrush and the 2019 Wimbledon Tennis Championships - US – supplied temporary seating for the first time for the PGA Championship at Bethpage and temporary structures for the Super Bowl, Daytona International and the Kentucky Derby
- Middle East & Asia – completed two significant contracts in Saudi Arabia, including a
temporary 15,000 seat stadium and 3,000 guest VIP hospitality structure for the Joshua-Ruiz boxing match, delivered a number of temporary hospitality structures for events including the Dubai Desert Classic, the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and the Abu Dhabi F1 GP - COVID-19 pandemic began to impact event revenues, firstly in Asia, in early 2020 – rapid action was taken to strengthen the Group balance sheet and reduce the global cost base
Post Period End
- Merger of UK & Europe and Middle East & Asia Divisions in June to bring a more joined-up approach to customer innovation, expertise and knowledge
- Monthly fixed overheads reduced by over 40%
| • Subscription and placing of shares completed in April – £9.5m gross proceeds |
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Arena Events Group CEO, Greg Lawless, commented: “The results to the end of March 2020 reflect a solid performance with no new acquisitions during the period, a focus on consolidating the 2018 acquisitions as well as delivering operational improvements in both the US and UK Divisions. The progress made over the last eighteen months meant that we were looking forward to a record performance in the 2020/21 financial year, based on a strong, efficient operational base as well as the prospects of delivering a number of very high- profile events, including the Ryder Cup, the Tokyo Olympics alongside our roster of longstanding, annual contracted events such as Wimbledon and the PGA Tour.
However, since March, the world for mass gatherings at sporting events has been decimated with no large-scale gatherings of any kind anywhere in the world since April – and these restrictions are likely to continue for the most part of 2020. Our business has had to react quickly to this dramatic and changing environment with little or no sport event revenues from March of this year.
Our first priority has been to protect the health and well-being of our colleagues and customers, and we have implemented strict guidelines on working within accepted social distancing practices. We have also had to take swift and decisive action to reset our operational cost base to match the significantly reduced revenue profile. We also adapted by switching our focus to delivering solutions such as temporary hospitals and drive through test centres which were an enormous boost to the April and May revenues. This type of revenue has now reduced and our focus over the next few months will be on managing our cost base and cash resources to extend the runway of the business into 2021 and beyond.
We have been fortunate to have secured financial support from our shareholders and our bank HSBC which, coupled with our “Press Pause” plan, puts us in a relatively strong position to withstand the impact of the lost revenues for the remainder of this year, with the hope that we see a return to mass gatherings at sporting events in early 2021.”
