Informa plc (INF) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

One minute. Am I just talking in the room at this point? We're live. Okay. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. And for those of you who are in the room, thank you very much for coming. For those of you who are watching live on the livestream, thank you very much for tuning in, as they say. And welcome to the presentation. Today, it'll be myself and Gareth who have a few slides to take people through. And then we'll throw it open to questions both in the room and also questions on the live stream. I'd also like to say a particular welcome to Phil Thomas, the CEO of Essential, who's sitting in the front row. Phil and I, as you can imagine, have got to know each other a bit better over the last few weeks, and it's a real privilege to have him here. He has a busy day today, so it's kind of him to give up time. He actually has a tight schedule, so he has to leave. So if he gets up in the middle of either mine or Gareth's presentation and leaves, it's not because he disagrees. Or that's what he tells me, anyway. But anyway, let's get into it. This is the disclaimer and into the meat. Today, obviously, there are two pieces of news, if you like, our half-year results, which we're going to spend a bit of time on, and obviously the offer that we have made to essential shareholders, which actually we'll spend some time on but not much because... As you will all know, we're operating within some guardrails and guidelines. It's a takeover process, and therefore we will be slightly restrained, not constrained, but restrained. I'm working out how many lawyers there are in the audience, as to what we can and can't say, both in open session and in answer to questions. But to step out of us and to step out of the offer for essential, just a little bit of backdrop that is relevant t...