The parent company of Las Vegas-based convention contractor Global Experience Specialists generated more than $1 billion revenue in 2012, but ended the year with a fourth-quarter loss attributed to a change in the interpretation of an accounting strategy.
Phoenix-based Viad Corp reported a fourth-quarter loss of $21.2 million, $1.07 a share, on revenue of $202.6 million, compared with a loss of $6.3 million, 32 cents a share, on revenue of $197.4 million in the same period the previous year.
For the year, Viad earned $5.9 million, 29 cents a share, on revenue of $1.03 billion, compared with $9.2 million, 45 cents a share, on revenue of $942.4 million in 2011.
Viad’s marketing and events group, which includes GES, saw revenue increase by 7.2 percent to $676.8 million in 2012. The international side showed a bigger boost because the company’s British unit handled events for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London.
Other earnings highlights:
• Same-show revenue is expected to increase in 2013, but trade show rotations are expected to affect the company negatively for the year.
• The company’s other division, its Travel and Recreation Group, saw revenue climb 21 percent in 2012 to $123.2 million because it owned its Alaska resort property for an entire peak season for the first time. The company also operates a resort in Alberta.
• According to a company release, during the fourth quarter, it was determined that certain deferred tax assets associated with foreign tax credits no longer met the “more-likely-than-not” test contained in the accounting standards regarding the realization of those assets. As a result, the company recorded a non-cash charge of $13.4 million as an income tax expense.