Tarsus Regulatory News (TRS)

26 October 2015

Tarsus Group plc

Trading Update

Quickening the Pace - Delivering Buyers

Tarsus Group plc (LSE: TRS, "Tarsus" or the "Group"), the international business-to-business media group, today provides a trading update on the current financial year to date.

Group trading for the year to date has been in-line with the Board's expectations. We continue to make good progress with our "Quickening the Pace" strategy with strong buyer attendances and a successful replication programme.

Emerging Markets

Trading in Turkey has continued to be good across the portfolio. Sign, the advertising and digital printing show, performed well with buyers up 28%. Zuchex, the housewares and gift exhibition, also saw a strong buyer attendance, particularly from internationals.

The Group had two successful replication launches as follows:

- GESS (education) in Indonesia, attracting over 4,000 buyers from 29 countries, and

- MEBAA Morocco (business aviation) also had a solid first edition.

Our AMB JV, acquired earlier in the year, held two events in Cambodia (CamBuild/CamEnergy in September and CamFood/CamHotel in October) and one event in Myanmar (MyanWater in October), all of which performed well, in line with the Board's acquisition case.

United States

OffPrice, the biannual discount clothing and accessories event held in Las Vegas, continued its trend of steady growth producing another robust performance.

The Group's Medical portfolio held two events in the period. PAINWeek achieved good growth over the 2014 edition with buyer attendance particularly strong. The Cardiometabolic Health Congress performed in line with management expectations.

3D Printshow had a good first edition in Pasadena and will repeat in this location in 2016.

Europe

The Group's second largest event, Labelexpo Europe, produced a very strong result with buyers up by 12% on the previous edition to a record 35,700. In addition, re-bookings at the event for the 2017 edition reached a very encouraging 84%.

Outlook

The Dubai Airshow, the Group's largest event, will be held in November. The event is on track to be a record edition.

The key remaining events in 2015 are tracking in line with management expectations. Across the Group's portfolio, bookings for the full year are tracking 12% ahead on a like-for-like basis.

Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group Managing Director, said:

"The Group has delivered encouraging performances from its exhibitions so far this year and has strong forward bookings.

"One of the key targets of our "Quickening the Pace" strategy is to drive buyer growth and we have been very successful in doing that this year across the portfolio. In light of the strong performance of the portfolio, we remain confident in delivering 2015 financial results in line with our expectations."

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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 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 and Mexico.