Annual pre-tax loss of £46m for NEC Group
The NEC group, which includes the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, made a pre-tax loss of £46 million in its last financial year.
The business, which also takes in the city's International Convention centre, Vox Conference Venue, Resorts World Arena and Utilita Arena, was badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
For the financial year to the end of March revenue was down from £159 million in 2019-2020 to £26m.
The loss compared to an £18m profit in the previous year with the group, which also includes caterer Amadeus and ticketing agency The Ticket factory, going from a trading profit of £50m to a loss of £4m.
The global live events sector was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the group's venues were closed for almost the entire 12 months of this financial year.
Principal shareholder Blackstone injected £50mn into the group during the financial year, which helped it successfully navigate through the challenging period.
The group was in a strong financial position with £101 million of cash on its balance sheet at the end of March.
Chief financial officer Richard Ashton, said: “The past 18 months have been extremely difficult for many businesses, including our own. As a live events business that has been unable to host events, this has required decisive action and careful financial management.
“We are very fortunate to have such supportive shareholders, as well as a strong relationship with our banks who have supported us during the year with additional cash resources when we needed it. This is in part due to how well the business was performing before lockdown occurred, but also due to their belief that the business will recover strongly, now that we have reopened.
“With lockdown measures eased, we are now running events again and we have an ambitious programme planned over the next few months. While we will continue to face short-term headwinds, including challenges around staffing levels and increased costs due to COVID-19 measures, we remain committed to our vision to become Europe’s most successful live events business, operating leading leisure, entertainment and business destinations.”
