Tarsus Group Sells Majority Stake in French Venture

October 5, 2011

U.K.-based Tarsus Group sold its 51-percent stake in its French joint venture ModAmont SAS to joint venture partner Premiere Vision SAS for €6.1 million ($8.04 million).

ModAmont takes place biannually in February and September in Paris and is the leading exhibition for fashion accessories in France.

“The disposal of ModAmont will materially reduce our exposure to the lower growth European market and less than 10 percent of Group profits will now be generated from France. Tarsus France will continue to focus on its remaining wholly owned portfolio of exhibitions,” said Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group’s managing director.

He added, “We now have greater financial flexibility to accelerate our drive into the faster growth emerging markets, where we are actively pursuing potential acquisitions. As we continue to execute our growth strategy, we anticipate a further significant increase in the proportion of our business coming from the emerging markets.”

In May, Tarsus Group acquired 75 percent of the issued share capital of Istanbul Fair Organization, one of the largest independent exhibition businesses in Turkey, for up to £10 million ($16 million) in aggregate payable in cash.

Emslie said at the time, “The acquisition of IFO is an important step in the realisation of our 50/13 strategy to increase Tarsus’ revenues from fast-growing, emerging markets to 50 percent of our total by 2013.”

In a trading update, since the company released its interim results July 27, Tarsus Group has held three major exhibitions.

OffPrice took place August in Las Vegas and generated a like-for-like revenue increase of approximately 6 percent.

ModAmont and Labelexpo Europe (the second largest show in the group’s portfolio that is held in Brussels) both took place in September and produced like-for-like revenue increases of 9 percent and more than 10 percent, respectively, both slightly ahead of management’s expectations.

Tarsus Group’s largest event in the fourth quarter, the Dubai Airshow – on tap Nov. 13-17 at the Airport Expo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates - is on track to meet management’s expectations.

Forward bookings continue to be strong and the board increasingly is confident of good
progress being made this year, according to Tarsus Group officials.

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