Acquisition Boosts Viad's '07 Results

Viad Corp., parent company of GES Exposition Services and Exhibitgroup/Giltspur, generated $1 billion in revenue in 2007 with net income of $44.6 million.

In its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings reports, Viad officials noted that GES had $746.7 million in revenue in 2007, up $123.7 million, or nearly 20 percent, over 2006. The acquisition of London-based Melville Exhibition Services, which closed Feb. 1, 2007, was responsible for $95.9 million of that increase.

GES reported $50.8 million in operating income for the year, up slightly from $48.1 million in 2006. It experienced same-show growth of 10.8 percent, up from 9.2-percent growth in 2006 and 6.8 percent in 2005.

GES President and CEO Kevin Rabbitt said he was looking forward to a good year in 2008, but that the 10.8-percent same-show growth might be hard to duplicate.

“We remain cautiously optimistic, but we're not planning on double-digit growth,” Rabbit said.

He also said a record-breaking Intl. CES in early January and the triennial 2.2 million square foot CONEXPO-CON/AGG in March bode well for this year, as does the anticipated positive show rotation, which should add about $50 million to the general service contractor's top line. By comparison, negative show rotation in 2007 detracted $34 million from results.

Viad's guidance for 2008 is income per diluted share of between $2.17 and $2.32, compared to $1.88 per share in 2007. Viad revenue in the first quarter of 2008 is expected to be between $323 million and $345 million, with operating income between $28.3 million and $32.3 million.

Exhibitgroup/Giltspur's 2007 revenue amounted to $172.7 million, up from $153.7 million in 2006. It recorded an operating loss of $4.8 million, compared to a loss of $3.5 million in 2006.