HYVE GROUP PLC (Reuters) - ITE Group Plc (>> ITE Group plc), a trade exhibition and conference organiser, said full-year like-for-like volumes sales in its biggest market Russia were running 20 percent less than this time last year, hurt by the fall in oil prices and a weak rouble.
ITE shares fell 7.3 percent to 133.25 pence, making the stock one of the biggest percentage losers on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday morning.
ITE, which earns about 70 percent of its revenue in roubles and euros, said it had contracted 85 million pounds ($128 million) of revenue for the year ending September, using an exchange rate of 95 roubles to a pound.
"Trading conditions in Russia have deteriorated over the past two months ... This has affected both international and domestic exhibitors," the company said.
ITE's total like-for-like trading volumes were 17 percent lesser than this time last year, and like-for-like revenue on a constant currency basis was trailing by 15 percent, in line with management's current expectations.
More than half of the 230 exhibitions and conferences organised every year by ITE take place in Russia and Ukraine.
"None of the other large exhibition organisers has exposure to Russia, and we do not see any read-across for UBM (>> UBM Plc), Informa (>> Informa Switzerland Ltd) or Reed Elsevier (>> Reed Elsevier plc). We continue to see Informa as the best positioned organiser in 2015 due to its comparatively higher exposure to the strong trends observed in the Middle East and to the USA," said Kepler Cheuvreux analysts in a note.
The company said it would continue its strategy of diversifying its geographical exposure outside of Russia.
Chief Executive Russell Taylor told Reuters in October that there would be less incentive to develop the business further within Russia.
ITE's Russian operations, which hold events for industries such as energy, construction and pharmaceuticals, contributed about 59 percent of its revenue in 2014.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
