Centaur Regulatory News (CAU)

9 Jan 2009 07:00



 9 January 2009

Centaur Media plc

("Centaur" or "the Group")

HALF YEAR TRADING STATEMENT

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Centaur Media plc (notes i & ii), the specialist business publishing and information company, today issues a trading statement prior to its interim results announcement, which is scheduled for 27th February 2009.

As indicated in our interim management statement on 14th November 2008, trading conditions in the first half of this financial year have been difficult and since then, we have experienced some further deterioration in trading during November and December. However as a result of cost savings we expect our profits in the first half of the financial year to be in line with the Board's expectations. In addition the Company has a strong balance sheet with positive net cash at 31st December 2008 also in line with expectations.

Visibility of future market conditions remains poor, but the Board is confident that the fundamental strengths of the Group will continue to provide resilience during the present period of economic weakness and give a foundation for strong growth as our markets recover.

Enquiries:

Notes 

Centaur's product portfolio currently includes 10 weekly or fortnightly magazines, 21 other magazines, over 20 online products or services, 25 awards or other sponsored events, 20 exhibitions and 80 conferences.

Centaur reports its results within 5 distinct business sector segments, namely Marketing and Creative, Legal and Financial, Engineering and Construction, Perfect Information and General Business Services. The first 3 segments comprise principally the following vertical business communities in which Centaur publishes market-leading magazine titles: Marketing Services, Creative Services, New Media, Retail Financial Products, Legal Services, Engineering, Private Homebuilding. Centaur also enjoys strong positions in a number of other specialist communities, namely HR, Construction, Logistics, Recruitment and Public/Private Finance. In addition, it serves the Business Travel community with 3 leading trade shows in the UK and overseas and an associated web service.