ITE Group plc, the leading exhibition organiser in emerging markets, held its Annual General Meeting at 12 noon today. At the meeting Lawrie Lewis, Chairman, updated shareholders on current trading:

"The current year has started positively for ITE with core business like for like sales well ahead of last year. With greater stability in Russia, the Company is well positioned for good growth from the existing and acquired businesses. The group continues to look at a number of further acquisitions and has most recently taken management control of VYSTAVISTE, the premier exhibition centre in Prague, through our associate company Incheba Praha.

Sales as at 16 February 2001 already booked for 2000/01 are �36.9m (1999/00 �25.4m) and over �24.8 million (1999/00 �18.8 million) of these sales have been collected.

As an initial step in splitting the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive, we announced on 12 January 2001 the appointment of Nigel Stapleton as Chief Executive with effect from 22 January 2001, pending the recruitment of a permanent Chief Executive. Nigel is also Chairman of Veronis, Suhler International, the European subsidiary of Veronis, Suhler & Associates (USA). In October VSA bought a 17% stake in ITE. Nigel was formerly co-chairman at Reed Elsevier.

Nigel's vast experience will be a great asset to the Company as it continues its development programme and his input is already starting to provide additional impetus to our growth plans. In the current financial year, we expect to organise 174 exhibitions in 29 countries and we look forward to the future with confidence."

ITE Group Plc	Phone: +44 20 7596 5000
Lawrie Lewis/Nigel Stapleton
Buchanan Communications	Phone: +44 20 7466 5000
Richard Oldworth / Isabel Petre