Emerald Holding Shares Jump On 14.20% YoY Revenue Growth To $145M For 2021

New York-headquartered b2b event and media company Emerald Holding, Inc. EEX reported Thursday financial results for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Operational Highlights

• In 2021, Emerald successfully traded 63 in-person trade shows, conferences and other events, serving more than 129,000 attendees and 7,500 exhibiting companies
• Completed the acquisition of MJBiz in December, for initial consideration of $120 million, plus potential contingent consideration, subject to the performance of MJBiz throughout 2022. MJBiz is the leading event producer and content platform serving the wide range of companies operating in the large and rapidly expanding cannabis industry

• Financial Summary

• Net revenue for full year 2021 reached $145 million, comapred to  $127.4 million in 2020.
• Net loss of $78.1 million for full year 2021, compared to net loss of $633.6 million for full year 2020
• Full year net loss included non-cash charges of $39.9 million and $680.2 million for 2021 and 2020, respectively, related to impairment of goodwill and certain intangible assets
• Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, of $45.7 million for the full year 2021, compared to $71.9 million for the full year 2020
• Cash generation increased as bookings for returning events accelerate
• Cash provided by operations of $90.0 million for the full year 2021, compared to cash used in operations of $37.1 million for the full year 2020
• Emerald generated free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, of $83.4 million for the full year 2021 as compared to negative free cash flow of $41.1 million for the full year 2020 (Refer to Schedule 4 for a reconciliation to net cash provided by operations, the most directly comparable GAAP measure)
• The company bought back 2.5 million shares at an average price of $4.94 per share during the year

Impact of event cancellations and date postponements on operating income was partially offset by claim payments received under Emerald’s event cancellation insurance policy. Emerald is actively pursuing the collection of the remaining unpaid amounts of filed insurance claims for its cancelled and impacted 2020 and 2021 events
To date, Emerald has submitted $249 million in claims, which represents the net amount of budgeted gross revenues less avoided costs for impacted or cancelled events previously scheduled to take place in 2020 and 2021
Insurance claim payments received to date total $184.4 million, of which $89.1 million was received in 2020 and $95.3 million was received in 2021.
Additional $20.0 million in insurance claim payments recently approved and pending receipt will be recognized in 2022. Emerald currently has pending claims of $64.7 million, and anticipates the submission of an additional $45 million in claims over the next 60 days.

“This continues to be an exciting time at Emerald as we plan for a full slate of events in 2022 combined with steadily improving bookings as we look out to the balance of the year," Hervé Sedky, Emerald’s president and chief executive officer, said. "This points to substantial year-over-year revenue and EBITDA growth as the recovery fully takes hold. While the recovery is providing a significant tailwind to our financial results, we have also been working to optimize the growth profile of our portfolio through acquisitions and the development of new shows in attractive end markets. In the fourth quarter we acquired the highly coveted MJBiz, the leading B2B media company with the largest, must-attend event in the cannabis industry."

" Looking ahead, we expect to continue to evaluate acquisition candidates to further drive improved growth and profitability in the years to come," Sedky concluded.

Price Action

Emerald Holding shares were trading 10.39% higher at $3.40 per share at the time of writing Thursday morning.