Mark Shashoua (pictured) is set to become chief executive of organiser ITE Group, with Russell Taylor standing down as group CEO from 1 September.
The replacement of Taylor by Shashoua as group CEO is “part of an orderly leadership transition”, said the firm, following the ITE’s interim trading results announced today (9 May).
In ITE’s statement, the group expressed confidence in the full year outcome with over 90 per cent of revenues for FY 2016 contracted.
ITE had delivered “a creditable set of interim results, against some challenging trading conditions in its core markets". Revenues of £64m for the first six months were 13 per cent higher than last year and headline profits before tax of £19m were eight per cent better than over the same period last year.
The results reflect the full benefit of acquisitions made in the last financial year, the group statement said, together with the effect of consolidating the results of former Indian associate business.
ITE’s like-for-like volume sales in Russia were down five per cent over the first six months of the year. The company described trading in Russia as “still challenging but prospects are improving".
In January 2016 the firm announced a small bolt-on acquisition of an industrial equipment show in China, Shanghai Ebseek, which has provided a platform for ITE to develop its business in the Shanghai exhibition market. ITE said also it was well advanced in its plans to acquire a further small business in Shanghai.
Shashoua, who has been CEO of i2i Events part of Ascential Plc, since November 2011, was a founder of ITE in the early 1990’s and was MD from 1995 to 1998 and then CEO upon flotation on the London Stock Exchange. A search is also underway at ITE for a chief financial officer.
Marco Sodi, chairman of ITE welcomed Mark Shashoua to ITE, describing his as “a key figure in the international events industry for over 20 years”.
On his appointment, Shashoua said: “I’m delighted to be joining ITE. During Russell’s tenure he has developed the business from its original Eastern European roots and expanded it into multiple markets. The business enjoys many market leading events in the geographies it serves and I look forward to actively developing the business moving forward.”
Asked what he thought was his proudest achievement at ITE, Taylor, told EW: “The establishment of a genuine Asian business”. He said that the focus on Russia had been as high as 90 per cent of the business 10 years ago, whereas it was now 50 per cent Rest of the World and 15 per cent Asia, with Russia accounting for 35 per cent.
He also told EW he would be looking to stay active in the sector, and “possibly have a stab at becoming a chairman”.
A short term dividend lowering to 1.5p from 2.5p was likely to go up in future with Taylor saying the policy was to “maintain over two times earnings cover going forward.
Analysts Investec said the dividend cut was unlikely to be taken well but that it was “more about cover build than a cash ‘crisis’. New CEO appointment looks a net positive.” The advice was to “buy for long-term value with good fundamentals/yield, but near term is still tough with oil price/domestic weakness hitting FX, GDP and Russia/CIS”.
