Event performance give Tarsus Group solid start to year

(Sharecast News) - Business-to-business media company Tarsus Group updated the market on its current trading on Thursday, reporting that since its annual results on 27 February, it had been in line with the board's expectations with forward bookings towards the top end of its targeted growth range of 5% to 10%.The London-listed firm said trading for 2019 was "heavily" second-half weighted, with revenues predominantly dollar-denominated.In the Americas, it said the Connect business continued to perform well, and in Mexico, it had record editions of its two largest events - Expo Manufactura and Plastimagen.China also produced good growth overall, the board claimed, with the editions of Hometex and SIUF said to have produced strong results."Trading so far in 2019 - the larger of the years in our biennial cycle - has been encouraging with buyer [and] visitor growth remaining strong," said Tarsus chief executive Douglas Emslie."We have a full replication pipeline this year and remain focused on driving organic growth through scaling up our portfolio in line with our 'Quickening the Pace 2' strategy."Emslie said bookings overall remained towards the top end of the company's target range, with the board anticipating record events at its two major biennial shows - Labelexpo Europe and the Dubai Airshow - later in the year."We remain confident that this will be another year of strong progress for the group."Tarsus Group said it planned to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June on 31 July.