Pre-Close Trading Statement

Centaur Holdings PLC
12 January 2005


January 12, 2005
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 relating to the 6 months
ended 31st December 2004, prior to its interim results announcement, scheduled
for 14th March 2005.

Results for the 6 months ended 31st December 2004 are expected to be in line
with market expectations. Overall revenues are expected to be circa 12% ahead of
the equivalent period in 2003. This growth has been led partly by further
recovery in recruitment and display advertising revenues in the 6 month period
and partly by the impact of new products.

Despite the start-up costs of the newly launched Finance Week, EBITDA (*) for
Centaur as a whole during the 6 month period is also expected to be above that
recorded in the same period in the previous year and EBITDA margins to have seen
further improvement. The Board remains confident that it will achieve its 
medium term 20% EBITDA margin target.

It should be noted that, due to seasonal factors and as previously flagged,
Centaur traditionally earns the majority of its profits in the second half of
its financial year, in particular in the period from February to June.
Accordingly, the profits that will be reported for the first six months of the
year will reflect this second half weighting.

Overall, good progress has been made in the period and we enter the second half
with confidence that the recovery will continue and that the full year's result
will reflect that.

(*) Centaur's key measure of profit is earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation and excluding exceptionals (EBITDA). In addition,
'normalized' results of continuing operations are presented to provide a better
indication of overall financial performance. The 'normalised' results exclude
the impact of acquisitions or disposals, as well as that of amortization of
intangibles and of exceptional items.



Enquiries:

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

Gavin Anderson & Company       Richard Constant        Tel: [phone]
                               Laura Hickman
                               Janine Brewis



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