Financial Times 05Mar2020

(Kiana) #1

14 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday5 March 2020


COMPANIES


A L I C E H A N C O C K— LO N D O N


Etiquette at conferences has undergone
a subtle change: some delegates have
dropped the handshakein favour of
knocking elbows. But for those in the
events business, thereis relief that con-
ferencesarehappeningatall.
The$1tnevents industry is at the
sharp end ofcoronavirus disruption sa
conferences, trade exhibitions, festivals
andsportingeventsarecancelled.
Mipim, the property sector’s annual
jamboree in Cannes, the Geneva Motor
Show, and Cera Week, agathering of
energy executives in Texas, are among
the casualties.
“This disease is presenting the exhibi-
tions and events industry with an
unprecedented global challenge,” said
Cathy Breden, executive vice-president
oftheInternationalAssociationofExhi-
bitionsandEvents.
As the number of coronavirus cases
climbs in the US, the UK and across
Europe, some of the biggest event
organisers face the risk that the disrup-
tionextendsintothespringandbeyond.
Companies are restricting staff travel,
with consumer groupNestlé anning itb
outright while Swiss bankUBS s onlyi
permittingessentialtrips.
Relx, parentofReed Exhibitions,
whichputonMipim,saidthedecisionto
postpone the conference had “not been
takenlightly.”
AfifthofitseventsinChinahavebeen
postponed, and the FTSE 100 company
is facing an outcry from locals over its
decision to go ahead with next week’s
Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle,
which attracts 100,000 people. Its
events business generated about 16 per
centofRelx’s£7.9bnrevenueslastyear.
Informa, thelargest exhibition com-
pany, saidit had not yet cancelled any
events but had postponed a number,
and will give more detailswhen it
reports results next week. In 2018, half
of the group’s revenues came from its
exhibitionsarm,amountingto£1.4bn.
After cancelling this year, some
organisers are questioning whether to
hold the event in 2021. “We will have a


two-digit-million loss,” after the cancel-
lation, saidOlivier Rihs, managing
director of the Geneva Motor Show. The
event is Switzerland’s largestand gener-
atesaboutSFr200mfortheeconomy.
Mr Rihssaid that as the organisation
was run as a non-profit, it was uncertain
whethernextyear’sshowwouldrun.
“We need some time to have the over-
view of the cost already made and then
we will propose a solution to how we go
aheadin2021,”hesaid.
Despite countries including France
and Switzerland banning events involv-
ing large groups, concert organisers
insisttheeffectsofarhasbeenlimited.
LiveNation, the biggest concert
organiser,lastweekstucktoitsfinancial
outlook for the year,saying events in
Asia and Italy over the next three
monthswere a tiny part of its business
and that 70 per cent of attendance at its
eventswasweightedtothesecondhalf.
Lanny Baker, chief financial officer of
ticketing websiteEventbrite, saidonly
10 per cent of its shows drew more than
half their audiences from places where
travelrestrictionswereinplace.

But investorsare wary. Shares in both
companies have fallen by about a fifth
over the past month.Music festivals
including Coachella and Glastonbury,
due to take place in April and June
respectively,havebeencalledintoques-
tion. Neither festival organiser
respondedtoarequest orcomment.f
While events will have insurance in
the event of cancellation, brokers warn
that after previous outbreaks such as
Sars and Avianflu, many insurers typi-
cally exclude communicable diseases
fromstandardpolicies.
Those policies that do have it as an
add-on can make a claim as long
as authorities ban public gatherings.
But since the outbreak, no insurance
will cover coronavirus, even as an
additionalclause.
“I can’t begin to tell you the number
of clients that are looking to buy
their insurance with this cover, but we
don’t have an insurer that is openly will-
ing to negotiate,” said Edel Ryan of the
special risks practice atbroker Marsh
JLTSpecialty.
Last month Relx hief financialc

officerNick Luffsaidthe industry
should take comfort from a record of
recoveringfromsuchscares.
“We had Sars a long time ago and
there was an impact back then, and we
had all sorts of things like the Iraq war
impact the business... But it bounced
backveryquicklythefollowingyear.”
Yet asGiorgio Armani ivel streamed
his Milan fashion show from an empty
event space in the city, and carmakers
streamedvirtualproductlaunchesfrom
Geneva, the flurry of postponements
and cancellationshas left someaskingif
theyneedtoattendsuchevents.
“Why do 27,000 real estate profes-
sionals need to go to the south of France
foraweekintheageofSkypeandvideo-
conferencing?” said areal estate execu-
tive who has attended 20 Mipim confer-
ences. “When you couple the problems
with air travel and international confer-
ences with the fact that businesses need
to be doing something about climate
change, it might be a useful catalyst for
themtorethink.”
Additional reporting by Oliver Ralph and
Patricia Nilsson

Media. irus falloutV


Disruption leaves dents in events sector


Risk of pain continuing


beyond spring as businesses


impose sharp travel curbs


The Geneva
Motor Show
is among
cancelled
exhibitions
Stoyan Nenov/Reuters

‘Why do
27,

real estate
professionals

need to go
to the south

of France
for a week in

the age of
Skype?’

P E T E R C A M P B E L L— LO N D O N
C L A I R E B U S H E Y— C H I C AG O

General Motors as raised its spendingh
on electric and autonomous vehicles to
$20bn by 2025 after claiming a battery
breakthrough that it says will give its
cars longer range and faster recharging
as well as making its new wave of vehi-
cles profitable.

Thecompany,whosebrandsrangefrom
Chevrolet to Cadillac, will launch
20 electricmodelsby2023,withtheaim
of selling 1m battery cars a year in the
US and China by the middle of the next
decade.
Its new generation of electric vehicles
will sit on a purpose-built platform
called Ultium, giving them specifica-
tions ahead ofindustry leaderTesla ni
range,chargingandacceleration,aswell
as making them profitable within the
firstrangeofvehiclestousethesystem.
Thefirstnewcarusingthetechnology
will be an electric GMC Hummer,
releasedlatenextyear.
GM claims the technology will bring
battery costs down below $100 per kilo-
watt hour “early in the platform’s lifecy-
cle”,thecompanysaidyesterday.
Despite most carmakerslaunching
electric vehicles,sales remain tiny, in
part because high battery prices make
the cars more expensive thancombus-
tion-driven models.Carmakers are
forced to charge extra, cut their driving
range to make a profit, or sell them to
consumersataloss.
Theindustryissplitoverhowtoadapt
to rising electric demand, with compa-
nies such asVolkswagen evelopingd
standalone electric models hile busi-w
nesses such asPSA nda BMW dapta
existingmodels.
GM’sstrategy echoes VW, which is
also hoping to use itsscale to push a
large number of electric vehicles on a
single platform, increasing its chances
ofmakingaprofitfromthenewcars.
“Creating an entirely new product
programme from scratch is never easy,”
GM chief executiveMary Barra aids.
“General Motors is building toward an
all-electric future because we believe
climatechangeisreal.”

Automobiles


GM bolsters


spending


on electric


vehicles


Legal Notices


Businesses For Sale


Business for Sale, Business Opportunities, Business Services,
Business Wanted, Franchises
Runs Daily
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Classified Business Advertising
UK: +44 20 7873 4000 | Email: [email protected]

MARCH 5 2020 Section:Companies Time: 4/3/2020- 18:50 User:jon.wright Page Name:CONEWS3, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 14, 1

Free download pdf