RNS Number:4548T
Tarsus Group PLC
19 December 2003

                              TARSUS GROUP PLC

                             TRADING STATEMENT

Summary

Tarsus has continued to make excellent progress in the second half of 2003. Our
ongoing businesses have performed in excess of market forecasts after excluding
the results of our loss-making French magazine business, which we sold on 18
December 2003. Once again, our core exhibition and magazine products in the USA
and UK performed well - the French portfolio of exhibitions and directories
stabilised and are now no longer burdened by the magazine portfolio. Our new
launch programme continued apace with 3 successful new exhibitions in the
current year and a further 7 new events scheduled for 2004.

USA

The major contributor in the second half was the Off-Price Specialist Show in
Las Vegas in August. Like-for-like volumes increased 16% compared with the
equivalent show in 2002 - ahead of expectations and a record performance for the
third year running. The exhibition was well received by both exhibitors and
visitors and contracted sales for the next show in February 2004 are already at
93% of budget.

UK

Trading results from this division's main products - Labelexpo Europe, the
Labelexpo China launch and Labels & Labelling International magazine - were
excellent. Although volumes for Labelexpo Europe in September were down 3% on
the 2001 edition, revenues were up 4% - a commendable performance in the context
of the economic climate of the past two years. Equally important, visitor
attendance at this, our largest exhibition, was the highest in its 20-year
history. The Labelexpo China launch was an unqualified success, with volumes
well in excess of our initial expectations and a very high visitor attendance.
Rebookings for the 2005 editions of Labelexpo Europe and Labelexpo China are
currently 90% and 95% respectively of the 2003 volumes. Labels & Labelling
International magazine delivered a resilient performance with revenues for the
year up 8% on 2002.

France

The four French exhibitions in this period - KM Forum (knowledge management),
Educatec (education), Progilog (supply chain management software) and Semo
(marketing research) - delivered volumes in line with or slightly below
expectations. Encouragingly for the future, visitor attendance at all four
exhibitions was good, with strong rebookings for the 2004 editions.

The directories division once again delivered record results.

In a separate statement issued today, we announced that we have agreed to sell
our French magazine division to Action Commerciale SAS for Euro1. As a result of
this transaction, 29 staff will leave the Company, representing 42% of the total
headcount of the French division. The loss on disposal is approximately #0.6
million, which will result in a full year exceptional loss on disposal of
approximately #0.4 million (net of the #0.2 million profit on disposal of
Exhibition Bulletin).

On 21 November we signed a management contract with Directeurs Financiers
Controleurs de Gestion (DFCG), the professional association for finance
directors and financial controllers in France, to organise Financium, an annual
conference and exhibition for finance professionals. The initial contract is to
run 5 events with the first event taking place in November 2004 at Palais de
Congress in Paris. The last Financium event, run by DFCG, took place in December
2002 with revenues of Euro550,000.

Developments

During the period we concentrated on accelerating our new launch programme. New
events for 2004 presently include:

* Labelexpo Russia
* Labelexpo Latin America
* Labelexpo India
* The European Label Summit
* Smart Packaging (USA)
* Off-Price Home Goods (USA)

In addition and as part of our strategy to grow visitor attendance at our
Off-Price exhibitions, we have signed a major sponsorship and marketing
agreement with eBay which will come into effect in 2004.

Outlook

The strong economic recovery underway in America is now having a beneficial
effect on our business with customers more willing to increase expenditure
through exhibitions both in the industrialised countries and emerging markets.

Despite the anticipated strong underlying performance of our business, it should
be noted that a very large proportion of our revenues in 2004 will be
denominated in a currency (US dollars) which has weakened considerably against
sterling in recent months. We anticipate good like-for-like organic growth in
2004 from our existing portfolio supplemented by a growing stream of revenues
from our aggressive launch programme.

The directors are confident about the prospects of the Company for the
foreseeable future.

For further information:

Douglas Emslie
Group Managing Director
Tel: 020 8846 2700



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