Further mergers and acquisitions activity in the events industry saw Tarsus Group plc, the international business-to-business media group with interests in exhibitions, conferences, publishing and online media, recently acquire Sepic SAS from the Fédération Française de la Chaussure.

Sepic owns and operates the Mod'Amont and Midec exhibitions in Paris. Mod'Amont is the leading international exhibition for clothing accessories. It is held each February and September and is co-located with the leading international textile exhibition, PremierVision. Midec, is the leading French shoe exhibition and is also held in February and September each year in Paris.

Commenting on the move, Douglas Emslie, group managing director of Tarsus, said: “This acquisition is a further step forward in our strategy to increase the scale and broaden the sector coverage of our French business. These exhibitions will add a further annual 20,000 net square metres of space sales annually to our French portfolio and we expect to substantially grow the profitability of the business through enhanced sales and operational efficiencies in 2008.”