The publishing-to-events-to-research group posted sales up 1% to £569.6m for the six months to 30 June.

At its Global Events business sales rose 6.8%, with 7% organic growth, to £243.9m.

The company said that “strong trading” in events in the first half also took into account “the muted contribution from our quadrennial print and publishing exhibition, Ipex.”

Ipex took place at London’s Excel exhibition centre in March, with a much smaller footprint than had been initially envisaged and half the number of visitors compared with 2010.

In April Informa disbanded the Ipex team, and also cancelled its small Cross Media show that had been due to take place in October.

Next year’s North Print & Pack is still slated for May.

Informa Exhibitions managing director Peter Hall said there was “nothing firm to announce” at this time regarding its future strategy for print shows.

“Our print expo plans will naturally encompass both North Print and Ipex, and therefore I would assume some change to the norms of the past,” he said.

Hall said he expected to provide an update over the coming months.

An Informa spokeswoman said: "As things stand we plan to run Ipex in 2018."

Separately, St Ives chief executive Patrick Martell will take up his new role as chief executive of Informa’s Business Intelligence Division at the end of November.

Informa has also recruited newspaper industry expert Andrew Mullins, who headed up The Independent and Evening Standard businesses for owner Lebedev Holdings. Mullins will become chief executive of Informa’s Knowledge & Networking division in the autumn.

Today (29 July) the firm also announced the appointment of former Emap group chief executive Tom Moloney in the new role of director of talent and transformation.