Emerald Holding Inc. said the 23 events it has canceled to date—including Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, which was scrapped last week—accounted for approximately $116 million of 2019 revenue.

The company didn’t break out the financial impact of OR Summer Market specifically, but Emerald has said that it falls in Emerald’s second tier of shows that have a revenue range of $10 million to $20 million.

Monday’s announcement was part of an update the company provided on its liquidity position as of March 31 as well as an update on upcoming events.

Emerald ended the first quarter of 2020 with $50 million in cash and total liquidity of $150 million, including $100 million in borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility. As previously disclosed, the company has also taken significant pre-emptive actions to preserve cash and strengthen its liquidity position while navigating the evolving pandemic, including, but not limited to:

  • Carefully managing its expense structure across all key areas of discretionary spending;
  • Drawing down $50 million from the company’s revolving credit facility to bolster cash balances;
  • Temporarily suspending the regular quarterly cash dividend; and
  • Halting any incremental share repurchases.

David Doft, CFO, said, “While the current environment remains challenging, we are aggressively managing our business to reduce our expenses and near-term monthly cash burn, and preserve our liquidity in order to position Emerald to successfully weather the dislocation that we are experiencing due to COVID-19 and its dramatic impact on travel and face-to-face gatherings. Additionally, I remain confident in our liquidity position as we ended the first quarter with $150 million in cash and total liquidity with no debt maturities until May 2022.”

To date, Emerald has postponed 14 events, equating to approximately $12 million of 2019 revenue.

To date, Emerald has canceled 23 events, including, most recently, Couture, Retail X, and Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, which accounted for approximately $116 million of 2019 revenue.

As previously disclosed, Emerald maintains event cancellation insurance to protect against losses due to the unavoidable cancellation, postponement, relocation and enforced reduced attendance at events due to certain circumstances, including communicable diseases.

The company is in the process of pursuing claims to offset the financial impact of canceled and postponed events as a result of COVID-19. The potential impact on Emerald events that are scheduled to stage later this year is uncertain. The company will continue to actively monitor the situation and manage its upcoming portfolio of events.

Photo courtesy Emerald Holding