Acquisitive business publisher Centaur Media is bullish after increasing annual pre-tax profits 36 per cent to £13.2 million.

Fully-listed Centaur, whose products include Money Marketing, The Engineer, New Media Age, Thelawyer.com and mad.com, lifted revenues 14 per cent to £82.3 million in the year to June, helped by acquisitions. Chairman Graham Sherren says strong growth in advertising, especially in online media, also contributed to progress, with online operations and events putting in the best growth.

The company, which ended its financial year with net cash down £4.7 million at £7.8 million, says recent acquisitions added £3.9 million to revenues in 2005-06. Centaur has particularly high hopes of Pro-Talk, an online 'sales lead service' bought for an initial £4 million.

Sherren says the current year has begun well, with revenues in the first quarter 'comfortably ahead' of a year ago, and growth prospects 'supported by our pipeline of new and recently launched or acquired products'. Finance chief Geoff Wilmot takes over as chief executive officer in November.

At 128.75p, down 3.75p today, Centaur shares are well up from last year's 76.75p low and value the company at £192.5 million.

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Centaur Media	LSE	£58.32m	41.00p	0.00p
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