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Arena Events warns of COVID-19 impact to all regions, removes guidance
16th Mar 2020 10:40
(Sharecast News) - Event solutions group Arena Events said the COVID-19 virus outbreak had impacted all regions in which it operates, leading to the cancellation and postponement of events and the company withdrawing all guidance it had in place for the current year.
Arena Events said in its second interim results for the period ended 31 December 2019 that the "seasonally quiet calendar Q1 period in 2020 would be broadly in line with that of the prior year with cost savings offsetting any market weakness."
While trading in the two months ended February was "in line with management expectations", significant changes to the global situation over the past few days has created greater uncertainty over the likely duration of the disruption.
"Whilst only a small number of Arena's larger events have been cancelled or postponed to date, there is now a strong likelihood that a number of events in our first financial quarter will be cancelled or postponed," said Arena.
"Given the type of large event infrastructure that Arena typically delivers, the preparation and build start dates are typically two to three months ahead of the event itself and indeed we are already on-site at a number of venues for events scheduled for April and May."
Arena added that it had now implemented a significant cost reduction programme including temporary lay-offs, reduced working weeks and global partial or full salary reductions, including unpaid leave which will remain in force for an initial six week period.
"Given the high level of uncertainty around future events in the current environment we are unable to give any guidance for the 12-month trading period to the end of March 2021," concluded the group.
As of 1035 GMT, Arena Events shares were down 27.96% at 6.02p.
Arena Events said in its second interim results for the period ended 31 December 2019 that the "seasonally quiet calendar Q1 period in 2020 would be broadly in line with that of the prior year with cost savings offsetting any market weakness."
While trading in the two months ended February was "in line with management expectations", significant changes to the global situation over the past few days has created greater uncertainty over the likely duration of the disruption.
"Whilst only a small number of Arena's larger events have been cancelled or postponed to date, there is now a strong likelihood that a number of events in our first financial quarter will be cancelled or postponed," said Arena.
"Given the type of large event infrastructure that Arena typically delivers, the preparation and build start dates are typically two to three months ahead of the event itself and indeed we are already on-site at a number of venues for events scheduled for April and May."
Arena added that it had now implemented a significant cost reduction programme including temporary lay-offs, reduced working weeks and global partial or full salary reductions, including unpaid leave which will remain in force for an initial six week period.
"Given the high level of uncertainty around future events in the current environment we are unable to give any guidance for the 12-month trading period to the end of March 2021," concluded the group.
As of 1035 GMT, Arena Events shares were down 27.96% at 6.02p.