Booked sales ahead of last year at ITE

Like-for-like revenues eased a little in the April to June quarter from a year earlier at ITE Group, but the exhibitions and conferences organiser said that was in line with expectations.

On a like-for-like basis revenues for the group's fiscal third quarter were some 3% lower than the previous year. ITE said the decline was mostly down to the performance of the group's Mosbuild event in its biennially weaker year. Mosbuild, an event for the construction industry, also faced competition this year from a newly launched rival exhibition. The remainder of ITE's portfolio, excluding Mosbuild, delivered like-for-like revenue growth of around 6% for the quarter.

Revenues in the three months to the end of June were £76.1m, down from £79.4m in the corresponding period of last year. This year's revenues do not include any contribution from the biennial Moscow International Oil & Gas exhibition but do include first time contributions from recent acquisition Turkeybuild, as well as contributions from the spring events of the recently acquired Automotive and Beauty portfolios in Ukraine.

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As at July 13th, the group had net debt of £1.7m after spending circa £17m on acquisitions and deferred consideration during this financial year.

As of the same date, the group had £163.6m of sales booked for the current financial year, up from £146.8m at the same time last year, which means around 96% of full year revenue expected by the market is already in the bag.

"The group continues to experience good trading conditions in its principal markets and the board remains confident in the group's prospects for the year," the statement said.

JH