ITE full year profit and revenue hit by Russia weakness

Exhibition and conference organiser ITE Group reported a drop in full year pre-tax profit and revenue due to difficult trading in Russia and central Asia.

For the year to the end of September, pre-tax profit fell to £31.5m from £41.5m as revenue slid to £135.8m from £174.8m last year.

Chief executive officer Russell Taylor said: “ITE has delivered a solid performance despite a challenging trading environment in Russia and more recently in the central Asian states due to the weakness of the oil price and domestic currency, which has impacted the group's results.

“The group's other regions, which now account for over 40% of ITE's business, are trading well.”

The company said that looking forward, Russia accounts for around 40% of its business, down from 51% last year.

ITE said it has continued to diversify its portfolio and strengthen its industry verticals by acquiring leading events, establishing a better geographic balance between its historical Russian-CIS businesses and other leading emerging markets.

During the period, ITE acquired Eurasian Rail in Turkey and the international Breakbulk series of events, enhancing its transport and logistics portfolio.

In the oil and gas portfolio, it acquired Africa Oil Week which serves the upstream industry and is the leading event for exploration of future oil and gas reserves in Africa.

The company’s proposed final dividend remained at 4.9p, giving a full dividend for the year of 7.4p, unchanged from 2014.

At 1010 GMT, ITE shares were down 5.1% to 145p.