ITE exhibits strong first half

Exhibitions and conferences firm ITE Group saw revenue and profits grow significantly in the first half, boosted by a number of new acquisitions.Revenue for the six months to the end of March increased by 29% to £68.6m, with like-for-like growth of 9% over the period.Pre-tax profits leapt £6.3m from £3.5m the year before and the firm pushed up its dividend from 1.9p to 2.1p per share.The company added that it had booked £156.2m of revenue for the full year, compared to £137.1m this time last year.However, ITE said that in April, its largest trading month, total revenues were just marginally ahead of last year's, and slightly down on a like-for-like basis. It put this tougher environment down to the effect of competitive launches against two of its April events, Mosbuild and a recently acquired furniture event, Euroexpomebel."ITE has delivered a good performance over the first half of the year, with solid organic growth supplemented by the contribution of new businesses acquired last year," said Chief Executive Russell Taylor."The acquisitions of Autoexpo and the Beauty portfolios in Ukraine have expanded sector coverage in a market with potential for growth," he added."The group has also grown its portfolio of events in India through a small bolt-on acquisition in Chennai."