Tarsus Regulatory News (TRS)

4 Jan 2007 07:00

Tarsus Group PLC04 January 2007 4 January 2007 TARSUS GROUP PLC TRADING UPDATE Tarsus Group PLC ("Tarsus" or "the Group"), the international media group withinterests in exhibitions, conferences, publishing and online media has continuedto trade well in the second half of 2006. Trading for the full year remains inline with Directors' expectations notwithstanding significant US Dollar weaknessin the second half of our financial year. Like-for-like organic revenue growth was a healthy 14%, led by 2 of the Group'slargest events during the year - Labelexpo Americas and Heavent (France) - whichtraded above this overall level. The August Off-Price show once again producedrecord revenues which were slightly ahead of the 2005 result. Generally,attendances at our events in the second half were strong, particularly in Francewhich is benefiting from an improving economic environment. Revenues from emerging markets doubled on a like-for-like basis. We havecontinued to develop our Chinese portfolio throughout 2006 and expect this to bean area of further development in 2007. Caroo - our online business - trebled its revenues, boosted by the acquisitionsof Onrec and TSNN.com. Annualised revenues at Caroo are now running atapproximately £2 million. Elsewhere, Labels and Labelling magazine had anothergood year with revenues up by 10%. Our organic growth strategy has been supplemented by a small number of focusedacquisitions. In October we acquired Proseg, the leading annual facilitiesmanagement exhibition in Paris and then, in November, we announced the purchaseof 80% of Medical Conferences International Inc. (MCII). This was accompanied bya vendor placing of 5.3 million new ordinary shares at 207p, raisingapproximately £10.5 million after expenses. MCII is the leading anti-ageing andregenerative medicine conference and exhibition in the United States with annualevents in Las Vegas, Orlando and Chicago. A number of joint ventures toreplicate the event outside of the United States have been agreed for 2007. TheDecember Las Vegas event produced a strong performance with revenues andattendees up by 55% and 34% respectively, both slightly ahead of ourexpectations at the time of acquisition. Integration is proceeding well. MCII creates a fifth major division to our business and further adds to theorganic growth capability of the Group. Outlook for 2007 The broadening of the Group's base is an important step in underpinning ourability to grow consistently in the years ahead. For 2007, we expect continuedgood levels of organic growth in our portfolio as a result of the increasedlevel of new product development that we have undertaken in the last two years,as well as from the recent acquisitions that we have completed. In 2007, our Labelexpo exhibition returns to Europe and, as a result, we expectour US$ denominated earnings to be nearer 50% of the Group's total earningscompared with approximately 90% in 2006. Forward booking for this - our largestsingle event - are strong. The underlying momentum of the business is positive and we continue to generatestrong cash flows which are being reinvested for further growth. Although we areat a very early stage of the year, the Directors are confident that 2007 will beanother year of strong progress for the Group. Ends For further information please contact: Tarsus Group plc: Douglas Emslie Group Managing Director: Tel 020 8846 2700 Media: Matthew Moth Madano Partnership: Tel: 020 7593 4000 Investors: Neville Harris IRFocus: Tel: 020 7593 4215 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange