Solidly-financed Hyve hopes strengthen ahead of events market reopening

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Apr 8, 2021

Hyve remains upbeat ahead of an expected recovery out of pandemic restrictions this year, the UK-based events company said in its trading update Thursday.

“While the outlook remains fluid, the pace of vaccine rollouts in the United Kingdom and United States provides optimism that events in Western economies will run in the second half and with growing confidence from calendar year 2022 in line with our recovery scenario”, said group CEO Mark Shashoua.

Hyve, which will deliver half-year results to 31 March on 18 May, said further insurance payments to compensate for cancelled events over the last year helped the business to maintain a “strong financial platform as the market reopens”.

In the first half, the group ran 12 in-person events, in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China and most recently in India. This brings the total number of events run since the onset of the pandemic to 24.

Manwhile, Hyve said it’s currently trading between two modelled scenarios: ‘Recovery’ and ‘East West’. 

The former scenario assumes that events in China, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey are able to go ahead in FY21. However, they will be smaller than in previous years with a largely domestic customer base. The scenario also assumes events in western markets will take place during the second half.

However, the second scenario assumes that no western events will take place throughout the year.

In either scenario, “Hyve maintains its strong liquidity position and has visibility of significant cash headroom throughout FY21 and FY22”. It noted H1 2021 net debt is expected to be approximately £92 million.
 
It added: “With restrictions remaining on international travel and lockdowns still ongoing in certain markets, disruption to the event schedule continues. [But] Hyve continues to see strong demand for its market-leading events and a gradual return of customer participation”.
 
It also said: “Our focus on developing our omnichannel strategy positions Hyve well for recovery as markets reopen. We are focused on driving growth via in-person market-leading events as restrictions lift, and online as we progress the Group's digital evolution”.