Reed Exhibitions revenues down 4%

News this week: This week media group, Reed Elsevier, reported its interim results for the six months ended 30^th June 2011. The group’s exhibitions organising arm, Reed Exhibitions, reported revenues down 4% year-on-year at £368 million. Adjusted operating profits were £113 million, down 8% compared to last year. Reed Business Information’s (RBI) revenues dropped 8% to £344 million, while RBI’s adjusted operating profits were up 33% to £53 million.

The company’s management reported that excluding the impact of biennial show cycling, underlying revenues for Reed Exhibitions were up 10% compared to last year. Reed Exhibitions also has plans to launch more than 40 new events this year – and 18 of those were launched in the first half. Of the 35 new shows launched in 2010, management expects 25 will continue to run.

China, Brazil, Russia and the Middle East were highlighted by management as strong performers. In China, the company noted that the Sino Corrugated Shanghai packaging show has performed well.

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Tarsus’ net profit in emerging markets up in 1H

News this week: London-listed media group, Tarsus, has released its financial results for the six months ended 30^th June 2011. Group revenues were £19 million, a year-on-year increase of 14%. Adjusted profits before tax dropped 44% to £606,000.

Tarsus management reported the performance of emerging markets as very encouraging. Emerging markets (Middle East, China and Turkey) generated £5.7 million, up 72% compared to last year. In the first half of 2011, adjusted profit before tax in emerging markets was £511,000, a significant increase compared to the £90,000 recorded in the first half of 2010.

Revenues generated from Hope (China), a joint venture exhibition company with Hubei Hope Exhibition (China), were up 11% in the first half with that positive momentum expected to continue into the second half of 2011.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Baidu Q2 net income jumps 95%

News this week: Earlier this week, Baidu, the market leading Chinese-language Internet search provider, announced its results for the quarter ended 30^th June 2011. Revenues were US$528 million, a 78% increase over 2010. Net income was US$253 million, a rise of more than 95% year-on-year. Diluted earnings per share in the period were RMB 4.67 (US$0.72).

The number of active online marketing customers increased by 17% to 298,000 in the second quarter of 2011 and revenue per online marketing customer increased to US$1,779, a rise of 53% over 2010.

Baidu’s management expects revenues in the third quarter to be between US$611 million and US$627 million, an impressive 75% to 80% increase over the corresponding period in 2010.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.