Tarsus has record first half

Exhibitions and conferences group Tarsus enjoyed a record first half with revenue up by 36% to £19.7m (2008: £14.5m), with underlying like-for-like growth of 5%. Profit before tax to Juen was £0.4m (2008: £0.2m) though adjusted profit before tax was £1.7m, an increase of almost 100% over the previous year. The interim dividend is held at 2p.Going forward, revenues for Tarsus's two largest exhibitions, the Dubai Airshow in November and Labelexpo Europe in September remain comfortably ahead of the comparable events in 2007, it said. Group contracted revenues for 2009 stand at 86% (2008: 82%) of our internal projections for the full year. Trading continues to be in line with the board's expectations and we anticipate a very satisfactory outcome for 2009.