CHICAGO — Despite volatile conditions early in 2025 and ongoing uncertainty around the economic and political landscape globally, publicly listed companies in the trade show industry reported strong financial results for the year ending on Dec. 31, 2025.
Trade Show Executive dived into the major players’ end-of-year financial results to get the big picture on exhibitions businesses’ profitability going into 2026.
Informa Delivers Double-Digit Revenue Growth in 2025
The world’s leading event organizer in terms of revenues once again delivered strong financial year-end results for 2025.
Revenue for the company reached nearly $5.4 billion, which represents reported growth of 13.7% and underlying growth of 6.3%. Adjusted operating profit was reported at $1.5 billion, representing reported growth of 14.6% and underlying growth of 8.7%. In the B2B Live Event division of the company, underlying revenue and adjusted operating profit growth was 9.5% and 12.6% respectively.
Looking at just the B2B Live Events division, which included Informa Markets, Informa Connect and Informa Festivals, total revenues reached just over $4 billion.
“The Informa Group delivered an outstanding performance in 2025, delivering double-digit growth in revenues, adjusted earnings per share and cash flow,” stated Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive for Informa PLC. “The Power of Live, the value of proprietary First Party Data, deep international reach and the deployment of AI technology are driving strong customer demand for our specialist Brands, underpinning our confidence in the compounding growth opportunities for Informa.”
When it comes to the outlook for 2026, the company said it is targeting higher underlying revenue growth at 6%±, with the B2B Live Events underlying growth of 7%+. Informa is also committed to delivering consistent 5%+ underlying revenue growth over the next three years, faster underlying profit growth and 8%+ underlying EPS growth, according to its 2025 Full-Year Results Statement.
Emerald Meets Expectations for 2025
In its year-end results for 2025, Emerald reported revenues of $463.4 million, which is a 16.2% increase over the year before. For 2025, Emerald also saw pro forma organic growth of 4.8%, including the acquisitions of This is Beyond, Insurtech Insights and Generis. The Connections segment of the business drove $356.7 million of that total revenue.
This overall increase was credited to revenues from acquisitions and overall higher organic revenues, which came in at $397 million. This was just a 1.1% increase from the prior year period. Revenues from acquisitions were reported as $66.4 million. These were offset by a decrease in revenues of $6.2 million from discontinued events.
While in 2024 the company reported net income of $2.2 million, this year Emerald reports a net loss of $30.7 million. This loss was a result of higher non-recurring expenses driven by acquisition-related costs and earn-out measurement, according to Emerald’s report to investors, and reflects the strength of the recently acquired businesses.
But its EBITDA rose steadily (25%) year over year, with adjusted EBITDA for 2025 being reported at $127.1 million. In 2026, Emerald projects adjusted EBITDA of $137.5-$142.5 million.
Overall, Emerald met its financial expectations for the year ending on Dec. 31, 2025. The increased expectations for 2026 are a good signal to investors and potential buyers, as the company announced on Dec. 16, 2025, that it has started to review potential strategic options following inquiries regarding a possible acquisition.
RX Sees Underlying Revenue Growth in 2025
RELX, the parent company to RX, reported strong results in 2025, with revenues reaching $12.8 billion for the overall company, and underlying growth reported at +7%. The total includes revenues earned through RELX’s Risk; Scientific, Technical and Medical; Legal; and Exhibitions market segments.
In looking at just the performance of RELX’s Exhibitions business, RX, revenues reached more than $1.5 billion, a slight decrease from 2024’s $1.6 billion. In 2025, RX saw underlying revenue growth of +8%, which is reported to reflect the business’s continuing growth profile of its event portfolio. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth reached +9%.
When it comes to international markets driving performance, North America accounted for 20% of RX’s revenue; Europe accounted for 36%.
According to RELX’s 2025 Annual Report, more than 70% of RX’s revenues come from exhibitor fees, “with the balance primarily consisting of admission charges, conference fees, sponsorship fees and digital tools.
“We’ve had a strong year because we’ve been clear about how we evolve,” said RX CEO Hugh Jones. “We’ve focused our resources on developing high-value events that deliver measurable outcomes, meaningful connections, strong ROI for our participants and profitable results. We’re bringing the right audiences together by using our deep data lakes even more effectively to help our customers build partnerships that drive real economic growth. At the same time, we’ve expanded into new markets and new sectors and have developed more immersive event formats that bring communities together in new and targeted ways.
“In the future, we will keep focusing on creating international platforms that not only reflect where industries are today but anticipate and shape where they’ll be tomorrow.”
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