Euromoney sees upside to euro zone woes

Euromoney, one of Europe's biggest business and financial magazine publishers, said it would continue to pursue selective acquisitions and was seeing the benefits of moving more of its business online as well strong demand for its conferences and training services.

Shares in Euromoney rose 2.4 percent to 753 pence in early trading, and brokerage Numis raised its target price to 817 pence from 771 pence, keeping its "add" recommendation.

"The outlook is quite challenging, partly because of Europe and in general there isn't much economic growth. But the business itself is in reasonably good shape," Finance Director Colin Jones told Reuters. "It's not all doom and gloom for us."

The company's flagship publication is Euromoney magazine, and it also has a substantial events organisation business whose revenues rose 22 percent in the first half, accounting for about one quarter of group revenues.

Euromoney makes about 15 percent of its revenues from Europe, excluding Britain, but Jones said the prospect of Greece leaving the euro zone could actually help the company.

"It would give a little more certainty to some of the stronger European economies," he said. "Volatility of currencies is not a bad thing. It's probably another conference we want to run or something like that… making money from adversity."

Adjusted pretax profit was up 17 percent to 48.6 million pounds ($77 million), slightly ahead of the company's guidance last month, on sales of 189 million.