Global Experience Specialist’s parent company swings to profit

Viad Corp.

  1Q 2011 1Q 2010 % change 4Q 2010
Revenue $290.1 million $224.4 million +29.3% $187 million
Earnings $9.8 million ($3 million) -- ($4.4 million)
Earnings per share 48 cents (15 cents) -- (22 cents)

+ Global Experience Specialists, a key convention services contractor in Las Vegas, is a subsidiary of Viad.

+ Viad paid a 4-cent-per-share dividend on April 1 for shareholders of record March 11.

+ April 28 stock price: $23.86 (52-week high: $26.45 on Dec. 6)

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The improving economy has helped Viad Corp, parent company of Las Vegas-based convention services contractor Global Experience Specialists, to a profitable quarter after a loss a year ago.

Phoenix-based Viad reported earnings of $9.8 million, 48 cents a share, on revenue of $290.1 million for the quarter that ended March 31. That compared with a loss of $3 million, 15 cents a share, on revenue of $224.4 million for the same quarter a year earlier. The results beat analysts’ estimated earnings of 28 cents.

The revenue total was the highest recorded by the company since the first quarter of 2008.

Paul Dykstra, chairman, president and CEO of Phoenix-based Viad, credited the company’s marketing and events group for better-than-expected results.

“The Marketing and Events Group performed well during its seasonally strongest quarter of the year,” Dykstra said in a release issued today. “U.S. based same-show revenue increased for the third straight quarter as many shows saw greater exhibitor participation and we were successful in capturing additional discretionary spend from exhibitors while focusing on great execution and customer service.”

Positive show rotation – the staging of events that don’t occur every year – improved for the quarter by $40 million. One such show was last month’s ConExpo-Con/Ag at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Other events that helped the GES division of Viad were the International Consumer Electronics Show, which not only showed increases in sales, but drew 140,000 attendees in January, and February’s MAGIC Marketplace fashion event.

Dykstra said the company is expected to have a similar show rotation bump in revenue in the third quarter, but the second and fourth quarters are expected to be unaffected.

Total revenues are expected to increase at a high single-digit rate compared with 2010, the company said in its guidance projections.

Base same-show revenue is expected to increase at a mid-single-digit rate in the U.S. as year-over-year comparisons become more difficult in the back half of the year.

Annual show rotation, which refers to shows that occur less frequently than annually, is expected to positively impact full-year revenue by an estimated $10 million. Quarterly show rotation also includes annual shows that shift quarters from one year to the next.

GES also announced today that it has been recognized by Ad Age magazine for the second year in a row as one of the “World’s Top 50 Agency Companies” and as one of the “Largest U.S. Event-Marketing Agencies.”

Firms are ranked based on information agencies submit regarding discipline, leadership, major clients and revenue. The 2011 report appears in the publication’s April 25 issue.

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