TRS30 Jun 2011 08:34
Group trading in-line with expectations; forward bookings remain strong
Tarsus Group Plc. ('Tarsus' or 'the Group') (LSE:TRS), the international business-to-business media group, is today providing investors with a pre-close update on trading since our IMS of 5 May 2011.
Trading for the period has been in line with the Board's expectations. Forward bookings remain strong, with bookings for the Group as a whole continuing to accelerate and now stand at 85% of anticipated full year revenues compared with 75% at the same time in 2010 (as adjusted for biennial events).
Revenues for Tarsus' two largest biennial exhibitions, the Dubai Air Show (in November 2011) and Labelexpo Europe (in September 2011), remain ahead of the comparable events in 2009 and both are on track to be record events. Bookings for Labelexpo Europe are already ahead of the actual 2009 result and are now tracking over 10% up on its previous edition. The Dubai Airshow bookings, as a result of strong orders received at the Paris Airshow last week, are now tracking ahead of its previous edition.
From a strategic perspective, we are also seeing good progress with our "Project 50/13" initiative which is targeting a significant increase in our scale in Emerging Markets. On 7 June we completed the acquisition of 75% of the issued share capital of Istanbul based IFO, one of the largest independent exhibition businesses in Turkey, for up to £10 million in aggregate payable in cash. REW, the waste recycling exhibition, has been the first Turkish event to take place under our ownership and was in-line with our expectations.
In addition, we placed 11,347,517 new Ordinary Shares with new and existing institutional investors at the placing price of 141 pence per share to raise approximately £16 million (approximately £15 million net of expenses) for the Company.