At the start of 2013 Tarsus launched its “Quickening the Pace” strategy. The core focus of Quickening the Pace is to accelerate earnings per share growth. This is being driven by a combination of geographical replications of major brands into fast growth economies; organic growth from the existing portfolio; tight cost control and selective bolt-on acquisitions in the US and Emerging Markets. The first half of 2013 has seen good progress in a number of areas. Tarsus has successfully driven organic growth in its existing portfolio, led by businesses in Turkey and China. Tarsus has also announced the replication of a number of events and completed the acquisition of a business in Indonesia. The Group’s financial performance continues to benefit from the exposure of its portfolio to the Emerging Markets.Strong underlying revenue growth across the business together with tight cost control continues to drive improving margins. The Group’s Emerging Markets portfolio showed strong like-for-like revenue growth of 13% in the first half of the year with impressive performances from the Chinese and Turkish businesses.
In February 2013 Tarsus acquired 51% of Indonesian exhibition organiser PT Infrastructure Asia (“PTIA”). This acquisition has provided the Group with an important base in the fast growing Indonesian exhibition market.