2009 News Releases

Preliminary Results for the Year Ended 31 December 2008

03 March

Reshaped UBM delivers robust performance

Highlights

• Robust performance from UBM’s reshaped businesses
• Dividend up 10%; dividend cover of 2.39
• Strong operating margin - 19.6% (2007 – 20.7%)
• Cash conversion - 100%
• Strong balance sheet maintained; cash & undrawn committed facilities of £246m
• Continuing active cost management - headcount reduced by over 500 in H2 2008; over 1,000 since June 2007
• Trading for November, December & January satisfactory and resilient

B2B Communities

• Events contribute 47.3% of UBM operating profits in 2008 (2007 – 40.3%)
• Events deliver 9% underlying revenue growth over 2007
• 2009 revenue bookings for major events 5% ahead of prior year
• Data, services & online generate 17.9% of 2008 profits (2007 – 15.2%)
• 2009 earnings for directories and subscription products substantially secured
• Active management of print advertising decline – 13.8% of 2008 profits (2007 – 17.0%)

B2B Distribution, Monitoring & Targeting

• Growth in International, multimedia, online & service revenues
• US newswire distribution market share stabilised

* Adjusted continuing group operating profit is group operating profit before amortisation of intangible assets on acquisitions, exceptional items and share of taxation on profit in joint ventures and associates (see page 13)
** Headline EPS (adjusted) is before amortisation of intangible assets arising on acquisitions, exceptional items, deferred tax on intangible assets and net financing costs - other than interest (see note 7 on page 37)

Statutory results

David Levin, Chief Executive Officer of United Business Media Limited said:

“UBM delivered a robust performance in 2008. While UBM is not immune to the effects of the slowdown taking place across markets and economies worldwide, we are confident that we are as well placed as we can be to continue to deliver value to shareholders, as illustrated by our 10% growth in dividend for 2008.”

“In 2008 we continued our long term strategy to reshape UBM with a more diverse and resilient set of products and services, operating in higher growth markets and economies. Events, data, services and our on-line activities now account for around 60% of our operating profit, distribution, monitoring and targeting 25% and print magazines less than 15%.”

“During the year we also reshaped the organisational and management structures of a number of our businesses to improve their market focus, creating smaller, more agile business units and bringing their management teams closer to their customers and audiences.”

“We have also taken early action to reduce costs and have maintained a prudent balance sheet, allowing us to continue to make selected acquisitions as pricing improves and opportunities arise.”

Below we provide a detailed outlook statement for the remainder of 2009 and beyond:

B2B Communities - Events - In 2008 events contributed 32.9% of revenues and 47.3% of UBM’s profits. Forward bookings for our 2009 major events – which contribute approximately £120m or approximately 40% of revenue – are showing 5% growth. In Asia our key events such as the September edition of the Hong Kong Jewellery Show, the All China Leather Exhibition (leatherwear), Marintec (marine technology) in Shanghai, Furniture China and Cosmoprof Asia (beauty products) are on track to achieve growth in 2009. Our global, multi-event franchises such as Game Developer (professional game software developers), CPhI (pharmaceutical ingredients) and Food Ingredients are also on track.

Events which serve markets that are being most severely affected by the downturn, such as the UK furniture industry and the US-based semiconductor industry, will shrink in 2009. We also anticipate that cuts in corporate travel budgets will reduce paid attendance at some of our US events in 2009. However there are other sectors such as IT security (Black Hat) and global trade / logistics (Breakbulk) where paid attendance is on track to achieve growth. Paid attendance represents less than 10% of our total events revenue. Overall we expect the proportion of UBM profits generated by events – 47.3% in 2008 - to continue to rise in 2009.

B2B Communities - Data, Services and Online - In 2008 data, services and online products contributed 25.4% of revenues and 17.9% of profits. The Vidal drug information products have largely traded for 2009 and are in line with our expectations. Other products and services such as Semiconductor Insights (semiconductor IP business intelligence), PIERS (import and export information & analysis), RISI (paper & pulp information & analysis), IPED (professional development), Next Level (IT sales & marketing services) and Light Reading (telecoms intelligence) are also on track to achieve flat or modest growth in revenue. However some products which serve professional communities which are under the most acute financial pressure and which are experiencing falling employment will see declines in 2009. Although we have some exposure to markets such as printed flight directories, we have chosen not to operate in the most severely hit markets such as financial services and retail.

B2B Communities - Print - Magazines - In 2008 print magazine products contributed 24.3% of revenues and 13.8% of profits. Over the last five years we have actively managed our print magazine portfolio to adapt to the long term structural shifts in the media environment, reducing the proportion of UBM’s revenues generated by print products from 56.2% in 2004 to 24.3% in 2008. We expect that current economic conditions will serve to accelerate these trends such that the proportion of UBM’s profits generated by print magazine products will fall from 13.8% in 2008 to less than 10% by the end of 2009.

B2B Distribution, Monitoring & Targeting - In 2008 B2B Distribution, Monitoring & Targeting contributed 17.4% of revenues and 25% of profits. Over the last six months market share for our US newswire distribution business – representing 48% of distribution, monitoring & targeting revenue – has stabilised. We have continued to grow our non-wire workflow, multimedia and online products such as ProfNet, MultiVu and MediaRoom. We have also expanded our international revenues generated in China, Europe and Latin America. We expect these trends to continue in 2009.

Acquisitions, Balance sheet and Dividends
In 2007 we set out a strategy for acquisitions and returns to shareholders which could, subject to trading conditions, lead to a level of leverage of approximately 3x EBITDA by the end of 2009. In the light of the economic downturn over the last 18 months, we have now revised this approach.

In 2008 our total investment in acquisitions was £38.4m, less than a quarter of the acquisition investment we made in 2006. We reduced our acquisition investment because we believed asset prices were inflated and that they would decline in the latter half of 2008 and into 2009. We also suspended our programme of share buybacks, recognising the importance of the strength of our balance sheet and UBM’s consequent low level of debt.

Our strategy for 2009 and beyond is to maintain a prudent level of debt. We will not set specific guidance on our acquisition investment and we have ceased our capital return programme. While not currently anticipating such activity, the Board reserves its right to make further share repurchases at any time if it feels it appropriate to do so. We believe that there will be progressively more opportunities to make acquisitions which are both complementary to our business and which also meet our stringent financial hurdles.

In 2008 we have increased our dividend by 10%, taking our dividend cover for 2008 to 2.39 times.

Outlook summary
Our strategic restructuring of UBM over the last four years and our active management of UBM’s cost base has positioned UBM appropriately for the current challenging environment. We continue to monitor closely both our businesses’ performance and the markets in which they operate where there remains considerable uncertainty. We remain prepared to address rapidly and effectively any deterioration in performance or market conditions. Demonstrating both the resilience of our business and the effectiveness of our management teams, our most recent trading in November, December and January has been satisfactory and resilient. We are ready to seize growth opportunities both by acquisition and through organic investment.

David Levin
Chief Executive Officer, United Business Media Limited
3 March 2009

Contacts

A webcast of the results presentation will be made available from UBM’s website from 9.30am, 3 March 2009. To access the webcast please go to www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

A video recording of the webcast will also be accessible from UBM’s website.  The presentation will also be available from UBM’s website as a podcast.

Notes to Editors
1. About United Business Media Limited
UBM focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM’s businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

For more information, go to www.unitedbusinessmedia.com

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