Tarsus Confident Second Half Performance Will Offset Weaker First

LONDON (Alliance News) - Tarsus Group PLC Wednesday said it remains confident of delivering a strong performance for its full year despite swinging to a pretax loss in its first half, as its revenues are heavily weighted towards its second half due to the timing of its larger exhibitions.

The business-to-business media company posted a pretax loss of GBP1.9 million for the half year to end-June, swung from a pretax profit of GB317,000 a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP34.0 million from GBP23.1 million was offset by a significant step up in operating costs, and an impairment loss of GBP1.8 million related to the disposal of its French business.

On an adjusted basis, stripping out amortisation, impairment charges, share option charges and exceptional items, pretax profit rose to GBP5.5 million from GBP3.0 million.

Tarsus said that its forward bookings are currently 15% ahead of 2014, adjusted for biennial exhibitions, and prospects for its two largest events in the second half are encouraging.

The company said it had continued to concentrating on executing what it calls its 'Quickening the Pace' strategy, which is aimed at accelerating the pace of financial returns to shareholders.

"The investment in our portfolio has resulted in sector leading organic revenue and visitor growth. The execution of our strategy gathered pace recently with acquisitions of PAINWeek and AMB and the agreement to dispose of our French business," said Managing Director Douglas Emslie in a statement.

"Prospects for our two largest events in the second half - Labelexpo Europe and the Dubai Airshow - are encouraging. The Group is increasingly confident of delivering a strong result for the year as a whole," Emslie added.

Tarsus proposed an interim dividend of 2.5 pence, up from 2.4 pence a year before.

Shares in Tarsus were up 3.3% at 219.50 pence Wednesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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