Emerald Holding, Inc. specializes in orchestrating business-to-business (B2B) industry exhibitions across the United States. These events span a diverse array of sectors, ...
Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX) is best known for organizing business-to-business (B2B) industry exhibitions—events that bring together brands, distributors, manufacturers, and retail buyers across a wide range of verticals such as retail, architecture and construction, technology, industrial equipment, and protective solutions. The business model combines in-person trade shows and conferences ...Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX) is best known for organizing business-to-business (B2B) industry exhibitions—events that bring together brands, distributors, manufacturers, and retail buyers across a wide range of verticals such as retail, architecture and construction, technology, industrial equipment, and protective solutions. The business model combines in-person trade shows and conferences with ongoing digital content, marketing tools, and commerce-oriented offerings designed to extend customer relationships beyond the event calendar.
On the events side, Emerald’s core value proposition is “connections” for industry communities: matchmaking between exhibitors and buyers, curated industry programming, and a scalable platform for brands to generate demand through live experiences. The company also publishes supporting print materials and operates online offerings that help companies promote products and manage engagement before, during, and after events.
A notable part of the company’s commerce strategy is its wholesale purchasing platforms. Emerald operates the “Elastic Suite” platform to simplify the wholesale purchasing journey for brands and their retail clients, and also runs the “Flex” platform. These digital products reflect a shift toward enabling commerce and information exchange around events—supporting repeat interactions and more continuous revenue opportunities.
From a cost and operational perspective, trade-show businesses typically face meaningful working-capital and timing dynamics due to event planning cycles and vendor/exhibitor commitments; the company’s disclosures and ratios (as reflected in the provided dataset) indicate structured working-capital usage and ongoing operational execution needs typical of media and information services tied to event production.
Financially, Emerald operates as a public company with market capitalization reported near $1.0B in the provided snapshot and maintains scalable operating infrastructure across exhibitions and platforms. While profitability metrics can fluctuate with event cycles and investment timing, the company’s platform approach aims to stabilize engagement through both event-based and digital channels.
Key people include CEO Hervé Sedky (President and Chief Executive Officer, joined in January 2021). On governance and sustainability themes, Emerald has been identified as a signatory of the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge initiative, targeting net zero carbon emissions by 2050 with interim reduction goals—an example of ESG-oriented commitments relevant to the environmental footprint of large-scale gatherings.
Overall, Emerald’s strategy blends live event monetization with digital commerce and marketing platforms to serve industry ecosystems year-round, seeking durable customer relationships and recurring engagement across both physical and online channels.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$463.4M
+16.2%
+17.1%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$-30.7M
-1495.5%
+123.8%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+56.9%
+1.8%
+16.4%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+18.3%
+14.3%
-33.7%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
-6.6%
-1300.9%
+120.4%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$41.4M
-9.0%
+143.6%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+8.9%
-21.7%
+108.0%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
151.2%
+41.6%
-0.8%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
0.82x
-35.9%
+11.9%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Welcome to the Emerald Holding Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Erica Bartsch, EVP of Strategy and Communications at Emerald.
Erica Bartsch: Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that this call will include certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This includes remarks about future expectations, beliefs, estimates, plans and prospects. In particular, the company's statements about projected results for 2026 are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by such statements. For a discussion of these risks, uncertainties and other factors, please refer to the company's SEC filings, including its most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q as well as the company's earnings release, all of which can be found on the company's Investor Relations website. The company does not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. Additionally, during today's call, management will discuss non-GAAP measures, which it believes can be useful in evaluating the company's performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the company's earnings release, which is available on the company's Investor Relations website. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and a replay of this call will be available on the company's Investor Relations website through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on March 20, 2026. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Hervé Sedky, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Herve Sedky: Thank you, Erica, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, I'll begin with a review of our fourth quarter and full year 2025 performance, followed by an update on our strategic priorities and outlook. And then I'll turn the call over to David Doft, our CFO, to review our financial results in greater detail. 2025 marked a transformational year for Emerald. Our teams remained focused on execution, translating strategic priorities into measurable progress and positioning the business to be more resilient, better diversified and structurally stronger as we enter 2026. Over the course of the year, we delivered solid year-on-year growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, excluding insurance proceeds of 16.2% and 26.8%, respectively, along with healthy organic growth. Reported organic revenue grew 1.1% in the full year. And if we assume the recently completed acquisitions of This is Beyond, Insurtech Insights and Generis, …
