Tarsus Regulatory News (TRS)

17 May 2013

TARSUS GROUP plc

Interim Management Statement

Strong start to 2013

Tarsus Group plc (LSE: TRS, "Tarsus" or the "Group"), the international business-to-business media group, is today publishing its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 January 2013 to 16 May 2013.

Overview

Successful completion of the Group's "Project 50/13" strategy has provided the business with a strong foothold in growth economies. The "Quickening the Pace" strategy, launched early in 2013, is now building momentum as Tarsus focuses on accelerating earnings per share growth by leveraging and developing its market leading portfolio of events in high growth economies and sectors.

Revenues are heavily weighted towards the second half of the year owing to the timing of exhibitions. Trading for this smaller period has been positive and remains in line with the Board's expectations and revenues are up 9% on a like for like basis on last year.

Forward bookings for the year to 31 December 2013 are tracking 11% ahead of last year (as adjusted for biennial events and acquisitions). Bookings for the Group's two largest events, the Dubai Airshow and Labelexpo Europe, are currently well ahead of their previous editions.

Emerging markets

The Group's emerging markets businesses continue to gain momentum through a combination of strong revenue growth and the successful integration of recent acquisitions.

In the period, a number of events were held in the Middle East and China which all demonstrated good performances and, very encouragingly, across the board visitor attendance at all these events was well ahead of the previous editions.

In Turkey, Life Media and CYF each held the smaller of their two annual shows in the period and recorded good performances. IFO held its biennial lift show Asansor, its first under Tarsus ownership, producing an excellent performance with revenues up significantly on the 2011 edition.

The Dubai Airshow, one of the Group's largest events in 2013, will be held in November and currently is seeing strong sales.

US

The Medical division continues to grow well. This has been driven by its education programmes, including those now delivered online. The Medical division's remaining 2013 order book is building well.

The February 2013 Off-Price event in Las Vegas performed well, with revenues up 6%. Bookings for the August 2013 Off-Price event in Las Vegas are tracking ahead of the 2012 edition.

Europe

Trading in the Group's French division has been in line with the Board's expectations and at a similar level to that achieved during this trading period in 2012. The Board retains its conservative expectations for the full year for this division.

Labelexpo Europe, the Group's other large event in 2013, will be held in September and is experiencing strong sales.

Acquisitions

In January, Tarsus acquired a majority stake in Indonesian exhibitions group PT Infrastructure Asia ("PTIA"), which owns and organises three annual business-to-business exhibitions and one seminar series in Indonesia in the infrastructure, TMT and security sectors. This has provided Tarsus with an important hub in the fast growing Indonesian exhibition market, in line with its Quickening the Pace strategy launched at the beginning of the year.

Financial Position

Save for deferred considerations payments in respect of GZ Auto and Life Media paid in line with expectations amounting to approximately £15 million in aggregate, there have been no significant changes to the financial position of the Group since the publication of the Annual Results on 6 March 2013.

Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group Managing Director, said:

"We have made a good start in 2013 and are experiencing strong momentum and sales progress, on the back of the successful completion of our Project 50/13 strategy to significantly expand our footprint in emerging markets.

"We now have a high quality portfolio addressing growth markets in fast growing economies worldwide. In line with our "Quickening the Pace" initiative we are focussed on driving visitor traffic and growing exhibition volumes as we seek to maximise the benefits of our unique and diversified portfolio and accelerate earnings growth.

"In addition, the Group's largest events in the second half of this year, the Dubai Airshow and Labelexpo Europe, are both experiencing strong sales momentum. We are increasingly confident we can deliver an excellent outcome for 2013."

The Group expects to publish its interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2013 on 31 July 2013.

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Notes to editors

Tarsus Group plc (LSE:TRS) is an international business-to-business media group with interests in exhibitions, publishing and online media. The Group operates globally in key verticals including aviation, medical, labels and packaging, discount clothing (Off-Price), housewares and automotive. Tarsus runs more than 80 events and websites and its flagship brands include the Labelexpo exhibitions in Europe, the Americas, India and Asia and the Dubai Airshow.

The Group operates across a worldwide network of offices in Dublin, London, Paris, Milwaukee, Boca Raton (Florida), Dubai, Shanghai, Jakarta, New Delhi and Istanbul. Tarsus is building on its strong presence in the emerging markets of the Middle East, China, Turkey, Indonesia, India and South America.

www.tarsus.com