28th Mar 2014 08:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - Exhibitions and conferences organiser ITE Group PLC Friday said it expects "record" profits and a rise in revenues for the first half of its financial year, although it is being hit by the strength of sterling and the crisis in Ukraine.
In a trading update, the company said it expects revenues for the six months to March 31 to be about GBP72 million, up from GBP69 million a year earlier, thanks to good trading and "a stronger biennial pattern". It said the revenue growth, combined with a first-time profit contribution from the Chinacoat event that it bought last November, will help it produce "record profits" for the period.
It didn't say which profit figure it was referring to. It had reported a pretax profit of GBP2.6 million in the six months to March 31, 2013, down from GBP6.3 million a year earlier. Its headline pretax profit, which excludes a range of items including goodwill impairments and acquisition-related costs, fell to GBP11.1 million, from GBP13.1 million.
ITE Group said it had been hit by sterling's strength against the Russian Ruble, Turkish Lira and the Kazakh Tenge in the current half year. It said like-for-like revenues for the first half are 10% up on the year on a constant currency basis, but down 2% at actual rates.
It said that if current exchange rates were to prevail for the rest of its financial year, then it would have an impact on full-year like-for-like revenues of about 13%. The impact on profits would be partly mitigated by natural currency hedging as well as growth in its revenue base, it said.
ITE has operations in both Russia and Ukraine. It said all its exhibitions in Ukraine take place in Kiev and so far its office had been able to run its exhibition calendar without putting staff or customers at risk. It currently expects to run the calendar for the rest of its financial year.
However, the crisis has hit sales in the country. It estimates that the impact will reduce profits by about GBP2 million in the current financial year as a whole. Ukraine contributed 6% of group revenue and 7% of group profits in its last financial year.
ITE Group added that it has contracted revenues for the full year of GBP146 million as at March 26, 4% less than last year on a like-for-like basis. On a constant currency basis, like-for-like revenues would be up 8%.
"The group continues to monitor the political uncertainty surrounding Ukraine and Russia, and the potential effect on sales in those countries," it said.
ITE Group shares were up 2.2% at 194.512 pence early Friday, the second-biggest gain on the FTSE 250.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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