17 May 2016 07:00
17 May 2016
Tarsus Group plc
Trading Update
Tarsus Group plc (LSE: TRS, "Tarsus" or the "Group"), the international business-to-business media group, is today providing a trading update on its current financial year to date.
Trading since the publication of the Annual Results on 2 March 2016 has been in-line with Board expectations with good performances to date across the Group's portfolio. Buyer growth on a like-for-like basis is tracking ahead of our internal target of 5%. We continue to execute our "Quickening the Pace" strategy and, as part of this, remain on course to run a larger number of replications in 2016.
Forward bookings for the full year are tracking 10%+ ahead on a like-for-like basis.
Emerging Markets
China continues to perform well with SIUF, Asia's largest underwear show, exceeding the 2015 edition. Buyer growth was up an excellent 13%.
Trading in Turkey was in-line with expectations with a particularly strong performance from Ideal Homex, the largest event in the period.
The Dubai portfolio continues to demonstrate growth. The largest event in the first half of the year was GESS (education), which performed very well with buyers increasing 17% over the previous edition.
Plastimagen, our plastics exhibition in Mexico, performed strongly. The replication of GESS into Mexico held its second edition and showed good progress, with buyer growth of 8%.
United States
The US portfolio continues to show solid growth. Our Medical business performed in line with expectations. This division continues to make good progress with its growth initiatives, with Painweek performing particularly well.
Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group Managing Director, said:
"The Group has seen encouraging performances from its exhibitions so far this year in what is the quietest period in our two-year cycle and has strong forward bookings. Tarsus remains focused on delivering industry-leading buyer growth to its exhibitions and continues to invest in replicating its leading brands to accelerate growth in the medium term.
"We are mindful of the current global macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical risk and have budgeted accordingly. We remain positive about our trading prospects for 2016 and have a strong bookings position for our larger 2017 biennial events."
The Group plans to announce its Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2016 on 27 July 2016.
For further information:
Tarsus Group plc:
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Douglas Emslie, Group Managing Director | +44 (0) 20 8846 2700 |
Dan O'Brien, Group Finance Director | |
Neville Harris, Investor Relations | +44 (0)7909 976044 |