Pre-Close Update

Informa PLC
19 July 2006


19 July 2006

                                  Informa plc

Pre-close update for the six months ended 30 June 2006

Informa plc, the leading global information specialist, issues the following
update for the six months ended 30 June 2006, prior to entering its close
period. The interim results will be announced on 26 September 2006.

The Group has performed well in the first half of the year and is currently
trading comfortably in line with the Board's expectations.

Informa's position of broad geographic strength combined with deep-seated local
knowledge continues to deliver results. The range of international and national
products and services creates a balanced portfolio with diverse and
complementary revenue characteristics.

Informa's ability to capture growth quickly during periods of positive market
conditions is highlighted by the first half year performance of its Dubai-based
Middle East business. Middle East revenues which are largely events related, are
enjoying strong organic growth both from increasing the size of existing events
and adding new ones. Delegate registrations there are currently 37% ahead of
last year and flag ship multi-million dollar events such as Arab Health 
(www.arabhealthonline.com) and Middle East Electricity 
(www.middleeastelectricity.com) have significantly outperformed 2005.

The pooling of events best practice from both IIR and Informa to create a
proprietary blue print for operational success in the training and conference
sector, provides a solid foundation for Informa to build these revenue streams.
This organic growth is driven both geographically as evidenced by Dubai and by
sector, such as Telecoms, which has also performed strongly in the half year.

The Performance Improvement group of companies, Informa's newest revenue stream,
is demonstrating that in addition to its durable qualities it can deliver strong
growth. Forum (www.forum.com) for example, had its best performing month this
May since its acquisition by IIR in 2003. Existing clients in the commercial
sector such as American Express and Irving Oil continue to launch new
engagements. In addition, assisted by sister company Robbins-Gioia, Forum is
expanding its large government initiatives, such as Department for Homeland
Security, a multi million dollar engagement.

Informa's subscription-driven publishing businesses, which have minimal
advertising dependency, have started the year well. Books have recovered
strongly from a softer 2005 for the market as a whole and the Humanities and
Social Sciences (HHS) Journals in particular continue to benefit on both sides
of the Atlantic from their market leading positions and the growth in HSS
research.

The net effect of foreign exchange fluctuations in the Group's results in the
six months has been minimal, despite the volatility of the dollar in the period.
Matching costs to revenues across geographies, and spreading debt between
sterling, euros and dollars, confines the effect of currency fluctuation to
profit translation only.

Peter Rigby, Informa's CEO, notes 'Our strategy to assemble and develop a
combination of specialist, high quality information businesses with diverse but
complementary revenue characteristics, from the very dynamic to the strongly
resilient is working well. Events, Performance Improvement and Publishing are
all delivering the organic growth we targeted. We move into the second half
confident of another good financial performance in 2006.'

                                      ENDS

For further information please contact:

Enquiries:

Informa plc                                               020 7017 5000
Peter Rigby, Chief Executive
Tony Foye, Finance Director
Susanna Kempe, Chief Marketing Officer

Financial Dynamics                                        020 7831 3113
Tim Spratt/Charlie Palmer




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