AIM-quoted Expomedia increased turnover by 39 per cent last year to £21 million, but losses surged from £1.2 million to £10.6 million, including a £7 million loss on discontinued operations. The Fulham-based company had to cope with a crisis in January 2006, when the roof of an exhibition hall 51 per cent owned by an Expomedia subsidiary collapsed during an exhibition.

Chief executive Mark Shashoua said Expomedia sold out for a nominal sum and brought nearly £12 million into the company’s coffers through a sale and leaseback of its Warsaw centre. He commented that most of this money will be spent on acquisitions in the ‘core’ areas of India, Russia, Germany, Poland and the UK, helped by an expected £6 million from selling out of Holland, Morocco and, possibly, Hungary.

Drawing attention to year-end cash balances of more than £9 million and insisting the company has no further liabilities from the Katowice tragedy, Shashoua said India represents ‘blue sky’ for Expomedia, which has contrived to be ‘first mover’ in a conference business burgeoning on the back of the country’s booming economy. He is also bullish about Germany, where the company is in partnership with a division of Bertelsmann.

Shashoua argued that a restructured Expomedia is beginning to reap the benefits from past investments and is putting a traumatic year behind it. At 82.5p, up 1p this morning, the shares have halved in three years and are now a recovery punt.