dmg events' reported revenues were down 37% to £110 million and operating profit* down 19% to £30 million, due in large part to the divestment of businesses in the prior year. These results also reflect the inclusion of one large biennial event in June, the Global Petroleum Show, but the absence of two others, Gastech and ADIP EC. During the year the restructuring of our exhibitions division was completed.

The performance of the reshaped and renamed group has been pleasing. Although profits* are lower, this is due in part to the late-cycle nature of exhibitions and also to the timing of some of our biennial shows.

Margins* have significantly improved by 6% to 27% as a consequence of reducing central costs, simplifying operations and focusing on market leading B2B events.

The division is now organised into five operating units, covering the sectors of Retail (Gift, Surf & Jewellery) Energy Leadership Conferences, Digital Marketing and a regional unit in the Middle East.

While underlying^† revenue reduced by 9% in the year, the most significant reductions were experienced early in the year and by the final quarter we were seeing year-on-year increases. Underlying^† operating profit* fell by only 7%, despite the high operating leverage of exhibitions due to cost saving initiatives.

The largest show, the bi-annual New York International Gift Fair, had a good year with the summer show showing year-on-year increases in both revenue and visitor attendance. The other major shows in the year were Big 5, held in Dubai and serving the regions construction sector, which grew strongly, and the biennial Global Petroleum Show in Calgary. These four shows generated 45% of our underlying^† revenue in the year.

Elsewhere, in the division we have continued to expand aggressively the programme of successful sponsorship-driven leadership conferences under the Evanta brand and now have events for financial and human resource professionals, in addition to Chief Information Officers initially served.

The recent attendance and bookings trends have been moderately encouraging and, with our portfolio of marketleading events, we anticipate these trends continuing to improve in 2011. The forthcoming year also benefits from two out of our three major biennial shows taking place, with Adipec in Dubai in November and Gastech in Amsterdam in March 2011.