Trading Statement

Centaur Holdings PLC
05 January 2006


January 5, 2006


                              Centaur Holdings plc
                     HALF YEAR PRE-CLOSE TRADING STATEMENT


Centaur Holdings plc, the specialist business publishing and information
company, today issues a pre-close trading statement, prior to its interim
results announcement, scheduled for 10th March 2006.

Results for the 6 months ended 31st December 2005 are expected to show further
growth. As reported at the recent AGM, overall revenues are expected to be
approximately 7% ahead of the equivalent period in 2004. This growth has been
led by increased advertising revenues, in particular magazine display
advertising and online recruitment advertising in the legal and financial
sectors.

Perfect Information, the Company's premier information service for the
investment banking community, is expected to report a significant improvement in
profitability compared with the prior year period, with further revenue growth
complemented by the effects of cost reductions implemented in the previous
financial year.

Events results are also expected to show strong year on year profit improvement,
led by a profitable second year performance from the Business Travel Show
Dusseldorf and further growth in established shows.

The company completed two acquisitions during the period, namely two logistics
titles and an associated awards event from UK Transport Press Ltd and the
fortnightly magazine The Recruiter. These have not had a material impact on
trading results in the first half and are expected to be modestly earnings
enhancing in the financial year as a whole.

It should be noted that, due to seasonal factors, the Company earns the majority
of its profits in the period from February to June each year. Accordingly, the
expected strong first-half profit performance cannot be taken as an indicator of
full year results. Nevertheless, the trading outlook remains encouraging and
profits for the year to June 2006 are expected to be in line with market
estimates.



Enquiries:

Centaur Holdings plc        Graham Sherren                   Tel: [phone]
                            Geoff Wilmot

Gavin Anderson &            Richard Constant                 Tel: [phone]
Company                     Robert Speed
                            Janine Brewis



About Centaur Holdings plc

Centaur's product portfolio currently comprises 9 weekly magazines, 2
fortnightly magazines, 11 monthly magazines, 4 magazines of a quarterly or
bi-monthly frequency, 2 monthly newsletters, 27 annual printed products, 19
online products or services, 25 awards or other sponsored events, 25 exhibitions
and 90 conferences.

Centaur reports its results within 5 distinct business sector segments, namely
Marketing and Creative, Legal and Financial, Engineering and Construction,
Perfect Information and Other. The first 3 segments comprise principally the
following vertical business communities in which Centaur publishes
market-leading magazine titles: Marketing Services, Creative Services, New
Media, Retail Financial Products, Legal Services, Engineering, Private
Homebuilding. Centaur also enjoys strong positions in a number of other
specialist communities, namely HR, Visual Arts Production, Construction, Antique
Rugs and Textiles, Logistics, Recruitment and Public/Private Finance. In
addition, it serves the Business Travel community with 3 leading trade shows in
the UK and overseas








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