* Deal to add 4 mln stg to 2016 pretax profit - CEO
* Says ITE to look at small deals in Africa, India and China
* Shares up 5.4 pct (Adds CEO comments, updates share movement)
By Noor Zainab Hussain
March 6 (Reuters) - Trade exhibition organiser ITE Group Plc bought a majority stake in a portfolio of events, mostlyin Africa, as the company looks to reduce its dependence onRussia, its biggest market.
ITE acquired a 50.1 percent stake in the portfolio from GPPEnergy Advisors Ltd for 16 million pounds ($24 million), thecompany said on Friday.
The portfolio includes events such as Africa Oil Week - anoil and gas conference to be held in Cape Town in October.
ITE, which gets around 59 percent of its revenue fromRussia, has been hurt by tensions across the country's westernborder with Ukraine and a weaker rouble.
Chief Executive Russell Taylor said the deal with GPP wouldhelp to reduce the contribution from its Russian operations toabout 40 percent of the total profit for the year endingSeptember 2016.
Russia accounted for 61 percent of ITE's 2014 profit beforecentral overheads in the fiscal year ended September 2014. (http://bit.ly/1FjMDOa)
"We are no longer just a Russian organiser, we are aninternational organiser now," Chief Executive Russell Taylortold Reuters.
Taylor said the deal would be the last large acquisition forITE in the near future, adding that the company would makemostly small deals in Africa, China and India over the next twoto three years.
Taylor said these deals could be worth 3-5 million pounds.
The deal with GPP is expected to add about 4 million poundsto ITT's pretax profit in 2016, the company said.
ITE also said put and call options were in place to enablethe company to buy the remaining stake in the portfolio fromGPP.
ITE, which organises over 240 exhibitions and conferenceseach year, said it would fund the deal partly through aninstitutional placing of 12 million pounds.
Shares in ITE were up 5.4 percent at 184.75 pence at 1330GMT on the London Stock Exchange. (Editing by Anand Basu and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
