David Loechner
Analyst · Citi. Your line is now live
Thanks Phil. The results for our second quarter were very much in line with our expectations and the outlook we gave on our last earnings call. Revenue for the second quarter increased by almost 6% over the same quarter of 2017 driven by CPMG which staged two successful events in the quarter. Organic revenue growth for the tradeshow portfolio was approximately 3% versus the same quarter last year, while organic revenue in other events and other marketing services products declined this quarter versus prior year. Overall, the quarter's total organic growth was flat; as we indicated would be the case on our first quarter call. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter decreased very slightly versus the second quarter of 2017 while free cash flow increased by almost 8% over the same quarter last year. Turning to our trade shows, the two larger shows to stage in the second quarter were Hospitality Design or HD Expo and Couture which both grew revenues by mid-single digit percentages as expected. The Hospitality sector remains robust and our HD Expo show which is the seventh largest show in our portfolio is well-positioned to continue to grow in the future. In fact, three months into our sales cycle bookings for the 2019 show are pacing towards a similar level of growth as we saw this year. While the overall jewelry market has been quite challenge for several years, our luxury event Couture once again significantly outperformed the industry, with the show's strong momentum driven partly by the team's success in expanding the luxury watch category. Our third largest show in the quarter, Internet Retailer Conference and Expo or IRCE increased revenues by low single-digit percentage. Importantly, in response to market trends and increasing interconnections between bricks-and -mortar retail, e-commerce, interactive in-store retail experiences and supply chain logistics, we are excited to have announced that next year we will co-locate IRCE Global Shop in the category of our RFID show to deliver a combined event we have named RetailX. Taking place in late June in 2019 in Chicago RetailX will bring together these three distinct shows to create an intersection of e-commerce store design and innovation. The initial market reaction has been encouraging and we are excited about the prospects for this combined event. Rounding out the larger shows in the quarter, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair or ICFF continue to build on a strong momentum and increased revenue by a mid single-digit percentage. The show has established itself as the centerpiece of New York design week, and we are confident of the shows prospects for continued growth in future additions. That covers the second quarter business performance at a high-level. And before I hand the call over to Phil to go to the financials in more detail, let me provide some thoughts on the outlook for the major shows of the rest of the year. Our first Outdoor Retailer Summer Show to stage in Denver took place last week, and repeated the success of our January 1 show there. The industry reaction to the recent show in its new venue was extremely positive, and we expect to report revenue growth of the show in the mid single-digit percentages. Additionally, we have sold more than two thirds of the projected booth space for the new November show and remain confident that we will reach our revenue goal for that show with a strong tailwind coming out of last week show. The largest expo in the third quarter is our ASD show which actually finished yesterday. Revenues for the show were estimated to have declined by low single-digit percentage versus last year's summer show, though notably, this would be a marked improvement from the trajectory of our March show earlier this year. The show's largest category Value and Variety is estimated to have grown by a low single-digit percentage; however, this is expected to be offset by continued softness in some parts of the style and beauty category of the show. The second largest show in the third quarter is New York NOW, which stages in a couple of weeks. Revenues for the shower are expected to decrease by low double-digit percentage, which is slightly worse than we had expected after the February show. The weakness we've seen in the home category over the last several shows has continued, although we are encouraged by the stability of the handmade and lifestyle categories within the show. Our pacing early in the show sales cycle actually started worse, but with the immediate management changes we implemented following our winter event, and with the new sales, marketing and show experience initiatives, we've been pursuing since then, we've seen solid improvements in the pacing especially over the last month as these actions have started to take hold. We are working to rebuild market confidence in the show's amore challenged home category and to drive strong performances from the categories that have more media growth opportunities. Make no mistake; this is a still a strong show that delivers considerable value to the market. In fact, we expect more than 2,000 exhibiting companies at the coming show, approximately 500 of which will be completely new and in excess of 20,000 attendees. With that said, the total cost of participating in New York NOW simply outpaced the returns for some exhibitors over the last few shows, and we have renewed our commitment to help rebalance that equation. As a result, we are working hard to re-establish the show's orientation, a high-end design and have also begun to introduce a number of investment initiatives that we believe will both noticeably improve the exhibitor's return on investment and also the attendees' experience over the next several shows. Initiatives under way range from enhanced VIP hosted buyer programs to expanded show features and services. With a little over a week to go until the show starts, we have seen a nice increase in buyer pre-registration for the show versus last year show which suggests that our expanded attending marketing efforts are beginning to have a positive effect. In addition to the specific actions that we're taking to improve the ROI of exhibitors at New York NOW, we started to implement a series of new sales and marketing initiatives for the later show cycles at both New York NOW and ASD as we previously discussed. We can see that these initiatives are adding to the efficiency of the sales process, but, as we have previously commented it will take more than one show cycles to see the improved productivity translate into better revenue growth. That said, taking into account the improved trajectory at ASD, we remain optimistic that we should see further benefits in the next show cycles and more broadly across the portfolio as we extend these initiatives to our other shows. Switching gears to show launches; we launched one new show in the second quarter namely a Regional Imprinted Sportswear show in Houston. The show was well received and the financial performance was in line with our expectations. Looking forward, we have six more of that launches scheduled for the rest of the year, two in the third quarter and four in the fourth quarter. In total, that will amount to seven for the year or eight if we include the addition of the third outdoor retailer show which compares to six launches for the whole of last year. The outlook for the launches remains good and their aggregate contribution is broadly on track with our expectations. Finally, let me comment briefly on our M&A strategy and confirm that we have continued to be active in assessing potential transactions. Right now, we have acquisition targets at various stages of the process, and, while the timing of deals is always unpredictable, we remain optimistic that our persistence and efforts will pay off during the remainder of the year and we will be able to deploy much of our free cash flow on attractive deals over the coming quarters. Our overall pipeline continues to be solid, and our M&A strategy is unchanged. I would like to now turn the call over to Phil for his review of our financial results. Phil?