Exhibitions group Tarsus has turned in a strong performance for the first half of the year, with revenues growing 5 per cent on an organic basis. Managing director Douglas Emslie says these results demonstrate the "robustness of exhibitions", especially against a backdrop of shrinking print advertising spend.
The emerging markets business - encompassing China, India and the Middle East - have helped drive top line growth. Excluding currency benefits, revenues from these regions rose 29 per cent and now represent 28 per cent of group sales. Mr Emslie says he "eventually" expects emerging markets to account for half of group sales. As such, he has renegotiated banking covenants to give the business more flexibility to make "small bolt-on acquisitions" in either India, China or the Middle East over the next year.
Full-year results have a strong second-half weighting, especially as the group's largest exhibition, the Dubai Airshow is scheduled for November and Asia's Labelexpo takes place in December. Mr Emslie notes that total forward contracted bookings are running at 86 per cent of internal forecasts for the full year, which is ahead of this stage last year.
Analyst Malcolm Morgan of KBC Peel Hunt is expecting full-year pre-tax profits of £14.4m and EPS of 17.2p (£10.4m and 12.5p in 2008), falling to £8.8m and 9.7p, respectively, in 2010.
TARSUS (TRS) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 115p | MARKET VALUE: | £78.6m | |
| TOUCH: | 112-116.25p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 190p | LOW:47.5p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 5.2% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 39p* | NET DEBT: | 110% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Net dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 14.5 | 0.21 | -0.1 | 2.0 |
| 2009 | 19.7 | 0.43 | -0.1 | 2.0 |
| % change | +214 | +103 | - | - |
Ex-div: 26 Aug Payment: 2 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £96.7m, or 142p a share | ||||
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