Trading Statement

Huveaux PLC
11 February 2005


11 February 2005

                                  HUVEAUX PLC

                                 Trading Update

Key points

  -  For the year to 31 December 2004, turnover more than trebled to
     approximately £14.4 million (2003: £4.6 million)

  -  Pre-tax profits more than doubled to approximately £2.4 million
     (2003: £1.2 million) but this is below current market expectations

  -  Earnings per share expected to grow by approximately 10%

  -  Political division showing strong organic growth with like for like
     revenue growth of 13% in the UK.

The figures are based on management accounts and remain subject to audit.

John van Kuffeler, Chairman of Huveaux PLC, commented:

'We are delighted that 2004 was a year of considerable growth for Huveaux, both
organically and through acquisition. Sales, profits and earnings per share have
all substantially improved.

We have invested in new offices in London to bring our UK Political Division
under one roof and this will generate significant benefits going forward.
Overall, the business has been transformed under a strengthened senior
management team and is in excellent shape. The outlook for 2005 is for another
year of growth.'


For further information, please contact:

John van Kuffeler,Huveaux PLC                          020 7245 0270
Ann-marie Wilkinson/Geoff Callow, Bell Pottinger       020 7861 3232

                                  
                              
Huveaux PLC trading up-date in respect of the year ended 31 December 2004 based 
on management accounts, which remain subject to audit.

   •Sales in 2004 more than trebled to approximately £14.4 million (2003:
    £4.6 million), of which £6.8 million related to the three acquisitions made
    during the year. In addition, further cash sales of our new Eurosource
    publication totalling approximately £250,000 were achieved, but deferred to
    2005 as a result of the European Parliament delaying the appointment of the
    EU Commission.

   •Pre-tax profits in 2004 doubled to approximately £2.4 million (2003: £1.2
    million) before the exceptional charge reported in the Interim Results
    related to the acquisition of Parliamentary Communications Limited. This is
    below current market expectations.

   •The Political division showed strong organic growth with like for like
    revenue growth of 13 per cent in the UK.

   •Due to Huveaux's advantageous tax position in France and the benefits of
    certain allowances in the UK, Huveaux's tax rate is likely to be around 17
    per cent on its 2004 results giving expected normalised EPS growth of
    approximately 10 per cent.

The performance of the main operating units is commented on below.

The UK Political Division (called 'Dod's Parliamentary Communications') is the
largest operating unit and consists of 5 magazines (including The House); 3
websites (including the two market leaders EPolitix.com and DodOnline); a
political monitoring business; a conference and seminar business holding over
100 conferences a year; the Electus public affairs recruitment business; and the
Dod's database and reference business (including Dod's Parliamentary Companion)
consisting of 7 titles. The sales totalled approximately £6.7 million in 2004,
up from £ 1.5 million in 2003, with a large proportion of the increase from the
acquisitions made during the year. Nevertheless, this Division is showing strong
organic growth and sales revenues grew 13 per cent in 2004 on a like-for-like
basis. The costs in 2004 include the full costs of moving from 4 separate office
buildings to the new integrated office in Westminster Tower (including the costs
of the remainder of the old leases). The pre-tax profit of this division after
these costs amounted to approximately £1.24 million. The outlook for 2005 is for
continued good growth in sales with the cost and operational benefits of the new
building flowing through. Our budgets for 2005 are based upon a May General
Election, but an autumn poll date could have an influence on the Division's
results for 2005.


The European Political Division, based in Paris and Brussels, had sales of
approximately £2.2 million in 2004, a like-for-like increase of 6 per cent over
2003. It consists of Le Trombinoscope (two reference books, a newsletter, a
subscription website and the prestigious 'Prix du Trombinoscope' political
awards) which had sales growth of 14 per cent in 2004; the Parliament Magazine
which achieved a phenomenal 46 per cent sales growth over the equivalent period
last year; EUPolitix.com which has seen stable revenues since being acquired by
Huveaux, and has turned a £364,000 annual loss pre-acquisition into a small
pre-tax profit; and ATP Egora (which consists of 4 quarterly magazines and a
website) which similarly saw stable revenues but saw increased profits under our
ownership with a contribution of approximately €70,000 (£48,000) in the four
months post - acquisition. Overall, the European Political Division achieved
pre-tax profits of approximately £317,000 in 2004.

Our operations in Paris, comprising the separate businesses of Le Trombinoscope
and ATP Egora, have recently moved into new premises together, enabling further
operational benefits to accrue.

Eurosource, which is the title for the new database and reference books and
subscription website on the EU Parliament and the EU Commission (which combines
the former Dod's and Trombinoscope databases) achieved sales of approximately
£250,000 in 2004, all of which were deferred to 2005 pending the delivery to
customers of Volume II. This postponement arose as a direct result of the EU
Parliament rejecting the proposed EU Commission in October. Sales in 2004 were
therefore £ nil as compared to £178,000 on a like-for-like basis in 2003.

Despite the Eurosource postponement, our EU Political Division achieved
underlying revenue growth in 2004 of 46 per cent in the Parliament Magazine and
40 per cent in Eurosource and prospects for the Division in 2005 are excellent.


The Education & Training Division consists of Fenman and Lonsdale.

Fenman had sales of approximately £ 2.8 million in 2004 as compared to £0.7
million in 2003 (part year only), but on a like-for-like basis, sales were 2 per
cent lower. Pre-tax profits were approximately £460,000 (2003 - £184,000 part
year only). This was a disappointing result reflecting a slowing of manual and
video sales (down 13 per cent) counterbalanced by 8 per cent growth in Training
Journal revenues and a 57 per cent growth in seminar revenues. Immediate action
has been taken to address these points:-

   •Production of the Training Journal is being moved to London to be
    produced alongside our other magazine titles with consequent cost savings
    and the benefit of a large advertising sales department.
   •The Fenman seminars business will be given the added expertise of our
    large London political conference and training unit and further expansion of
    this high growth business is planned for 2005.
   •The manual and video business will reduce its heavy direct marketing
    spend which will be replaced by a small sales unit targeting high value
    customers, particularly the larger Government departments.

The outlook for 2005 for Fenman is therefore for a resumption of modest sales
growth.

Lonsdale achieved sales of approximately £2.66 million in 2004, as compared to £
2.50 million on a like-for-like basis in 2003, representing sales growth of 6
per cent. Pre-tax profits were approximately £1.18 million, which represents a
pre-tax profit margin of 44 per cent. A number of new titles were published
during the year, including six new maths titles published in November, and sales
have started strongly in 2005.


Group

Head Office costs were £803,000 net of interest income which was in line with
expectations.

Huveaux ended the year with a strong balance sheet with no borrowings and
approximately £3.1 million cash in the bank. Cash generation was strong with 92
per cent of pre-tax profits being converted into cash during the year, excluding
deferred payments in respect of the Fenman and Lonsdale acquisitions.

To this must be added the benefits of Kevin Hand, Gerry Murray and Jean-Marie
Simon joining our Board in 2004. Five of our eight directors are highly
experienced publishers and three have served on FTSE100 company boards.

2004 has been an active year, involving 3 acquisitions and significant
reorganisation and restructuring of the operations under our strengthened senior
management team. Gerry Murray now has responsibility for all our UK operations,
and Jean-Marie Simon heads our European political activities. Both have actively
integrated our acquisitions and positioned the businesses for growth. The
benefits of the actions taken this year are expected to flow through for years
to come.

Overall, the outlook for 2005 is for continued significant growth. The Board is
continuing actively to evaluate and negotiate acquisitions which meet its strict
criteria of enhancing profits, being highly cash generative, with strong market
positions in growing markets and selling important information to end users. All
must be capable of providing strong long-term growth.

The above trading statement is subject to the audit being completed and it is
the Board's intention to release the audited results for the year ended 31
December 2004 and announcement regarding the dividend on 7 March, 2005.

Huveaux is today giving analysts and institutions a tour of its new UK Political
offices at 10.00am this morning. This will include a presentation on the
benefits achieved by the move to Westminster Tower and a review of the Company's
political publications and services.

11 February 2005




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