Financial publishing and conference group Euromoney said revenues fell 9 percent in April after a 4 percent rise in the six months to end-March and predicted things would get worse before they got better.
The company, whose publications include Euromoney Magazine, said its financial-sector customers were cutting headcount, spending on marketing and information and attendance at events and training courses. Its shares fell 5 percent.
"We saw a fairly sudden change at the start of the year, which largely reflects the cuts you are seeing across the board in global banks and institutions," Finance Director Colin Jones told Reuters in an interview.
"The second quarter (from Jan 1) is indicative of where things are going. You can basically ignore any recovery in equity markets at the moment, the broader capital markets are still very uncertain," he said.
The company said in a statement it expects revenue trends to deteriorate before they improve, and the focus on reducing costs and net debt will continue through the second half.
Jones said the company had been hit by a drop off in advertising and sponsorship and a sharper decline in delegate revenue.
Subscriptions had held up, he said, but he expected to see a fall off as the impact of declining sales 12 months ago kicked in, and the decline would continue into 2010.
About 300 jobs had been shed to position the group for the downturn, and Jones said he did not see any need for further significant job cuts provided markets did not get any worse.
Revenues for the fiscal first half were 160.7 million pounds ($243.1 million) but underlying adjusted operating profit rose 3 percent to 37.1 million pounds, thanks to cost cuts.
"We are encouraged that the management believe markets have 'stabilised' but note their caveat that they expect trading to deteriorate before getting better," brokerage Numis wrote.
Shares in Euromoney, majority-owned by Britain's Daily Mail and General Trust, were down 5 percent at 241.25 pence by 1006 GMT, underperforming a flat DJ Stoxx European media sector index. Daily Mail shares were down 0.9 percent at 314.25 pence.
Euromoney said it would achieve annualised cost savings of 13 million pounds by the end of the year.
Net debt rose to 214.7 million pounds at the end of March from 172 million at the end of December, giving the company a debt-to-EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) ratio of 2.1.
Euromoney's loan covenants allow a maximum debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 4, but the company said it intended to operate below a more conservative limit of 3
