Centaur’s operating pre-tax profits grew 45 per cent to £4.2m, according to the company’s results for the last six months of 2006, with revenue growing 12 per cent to £37.7m.
The company’s advertising was up 19 per cent, which it put down to acquisitions, strength of online products and its Legal & Financial division.
In a statement, Centaur said that its new websites – particularly marketingweek.
co.uk and designweek.co.uk – were now trading at or above breakeven and were “expected to make a significant contribution in the medium term”.
In its Legal & Financial sector, The Lawyer magazine and thelawyer.com enjoyed new levels of growth. The company said ongoing weakness in the media, retail and consumer goods sectors continued to have an adverse impact on the marketing and creative division – home to Design Week and Marketing Week.
In its Engineering and Construction division, its consumer acquisition from Emap, Period Living, was said to be “performing according to expectations”, but the engineering sector remained “challenging”.
Geoff Wilmot, Centaur CEO, said: “The overall outlook for the second half is positive and we expect further yearon- year growth in revenues and profits in the six months to June 2007.”
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