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.
The Group's trading in the second half to date has been in line with our expectations with key events performing well. The outlook for 2016 as a whole remains in line with management expectations with current like-for-like bookings 8% ahead and buyer growth 7% ahead of 2015 (adjusted for biennial events). Forward bookings for the Group's major events in 2017 remain strong.
United States
The 15th edition of Labelexpo Americas, the Group's largest event this year, took place in September 2016 in Chicago. It produced an excellent performance with visitor attendance 8% higher than the previous edition in 2014 and a very strong rebook for the 2018 event.
The August 2016 edition of Off-Price, the discount clothing and accessories event held in Las Vegas, was slightly down on 2015 as a result of taking place over a religious holiday weekend.
Our medical division is making steady progress this year, continuing the return to growth for the business as a whole. The PAINWeek event held in Las Vegas in September 2016 performed strongly driven by new pain drug releases by pharmaceutical companies. The Cardiometabolic Health Congress held in Boston in October 2016 performed more slowly than in 2015 owing to a weaker drug development pipeline affecting that sector.
Emerging Markets
In Turkey buyer attendance has been very robust despite the political uncertainty in the country. The strong domestic economy has helped deliver an excellent performance at one of our major events, Zuchex, the international housewares and gift exhibition held in Istanbul in September 2016, which saw strong revenue growth. Sign (held in Istanbul in October 2016), the advertising and digital printing fair, produced a solid performance with good visitor growth.
The development of our growing South-East Asian portfolio continues to be encouraging. The replication of GESS (Indonesia) – in its 2nd edition – showed excellent progress.
Outlook
The key remaining events for 2016 are tracking in line with our expectations. Forward bookings for the Group's major events in 2017 remain strong. In particular, forward bookings for the Group's Turkish events for the important first half of 2017 are in line with our expectations.
Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group Managing Director, said:
“We continue to drive our “Quickening the Pace” strategy and are encouraged to see good organic revenue and buyer growth across the Group's portfolio. The momentum we saw in the first half has continued into the second half and we have seen strong performances across our major brands.
“We expect positive performances from our remaining shows this year and the Group remains confident of delivering a good result from our diversified portfolio for the full year. Bookings for our larger biennial events in 2017 remain strong.”
Future diary
Tarsus will be hosting a Capital Markets Seminar for analysts and investors on 22 November 2016 at Saddlers Hall, 40 Gutter Lane, London EC4V 6BR at 4pm. The event will provide information on the Group's replication and organic growth strategies.
The Group expects to publish a trading update for the year ending 31 December 2016 on 10 January 2017.