Emerald Holding, Inc., parent of the Overland Expo consumer show and the Outdoor Retailer and Surf Expo trade shows, posted revenues of $86.0 million for the second quarter of 2024, a decrease of 0.6 percent year-over-year. This decrease was said to be primarily due to several small, discontinued events that were not contributing to profitability and scheduling differences.

The company attributed the revenue decrease to prior-year discontinued event revenue of $3.7 million, which did not contribute to profitability and scheduling adjustments of $1.1 million, offset by organic growth of $2.6 million and $1.7 million in revenue from acquisitions.

  • Organic Revenues, a non-GAAP measure that takes into account the impact of acquisitions, scheduling adjustments, and discontinued events, if any, were $82.1 million for the second quarter, an increase of 3.3 percent from $79.5 million for the 2023 second quarter.
  • Organic Revenues from the Connections reportable segment were $71.1 million, an increase of $2.5 million, or 3.6 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2023.
  • Organic Revenues from the All Other category were $11.0 million, an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the second quarter of 2023. A $0.3 million increase in Commerce revenues offset a $0.2 million decrease in Content revenues.

Emerald Holding posted a net loss of $2.8 million for the second quarter, compared to net loss of $8.1 million for the 2023 second quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $15.3 million for the second quarter, compared to $14.6 million for the 2023 second quarter. The company ended the quarter with $193.2 million in cash and full availability of its $110.0 million revolving credit facility.

Emerald’s Board of Directors intends to restart a regular quarterly dividend and declared a dividend of $0.015 per share for the quarter ending September 30, 2024.

Outlook
For the full year 2024, Emerald Holding expects to generate revenues within its originally communicated guidance of $415 million to $425 million and between $110 million and $115 million of Adjusted EBITDA.

Hervé Sedky, Emerald’s president and chief executive officer, said, “We are pleased to report another quarter of solid growth in organic revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, despite it being our seasonally smaller second quarter. The continued positive trends indicate that our customers continue to value the high return on investment of live events, evidenced by higher re-bookings along with sustained strength in pricing as we move through the year.

“We remain focused on transforming Emerald into a powerful, diverse and scalable platform with strong momentum. Additionally, we are excited to announce that we are reinstituting a regular quarterly dividend policy that was suspended during the pandemic and which was approved by our board of directors to reward shareholders with a tangible return of capital. This decision reflects the strong, reliable, cash flow-generating nature of our business and our visibility into continued earnings growth as we look ahead. It is also part of our balanced capital allocation framework which combines a disciplined M&A strategy with prudent leverage and investments back into our core business,” Sedky concluded.

David Doft, Emerald’s CFO, added, “Our outlook continues to reflect the sustained, positive trends we’ve been seeing in the business since the COVID-19 recovery began. We continue to expect meaningful year-over-year revenue growth, as reflected in our full-year guidance, along with improving margins as we leverage our operating cost base. Our forward visibility into trade show bookings, including into the first half of 2025, as well as the critical place of trade shows in companies’ marketing budgets, gives us confidence in our ability to drive continued year-over-year growth for the foreseeable future.”

Image courtesy Surf Expo