Results round-up

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.

Northgate posted a slight decline in pre-tax profit for the first half, although it lifted its dividend and reiterated its expectations for the year.

For the half year to the end of October, underlying pre-tax profit slipped to £45.9m from £47.8m in the same period last year, on revenue of £313.1m from £305m.

The company pointed to a £2.4m adverse impact from the change in vehicle depreciation rates and a £1.9m adverse effect from the weakening euro.

At constant currency, profit would have been £1.9m higher.

The company, which specialises in light commercial vehicle hire, raised its interim dividend to 5.1p from 4.3p last year.

Northgate said it was trading in line with its expectations overall, despite a mixed backdrop in the first six months of the year, with some weakness in UK vehicles on hire offset by a strong performance in Spain.

Chief executive Bob Contreras said: “Our Spanish business continues to execute its market strategy well; leading to improved profitability and returns. We anticipate this continuing against the backdrop of an improving Spanish economy.

“There are opportunities for growth in the countries in which we operate and the group remains well positioned to deliver attractive returns to shareholders. There is no change in our expectations for the full year.”