Media giant UBM put the cash aside in its half-yearly results today as an exceptional charge of “£3.7m in connection with contracts with the ExCeL London Exhibition and Convention Centre which entail minimum commitments for space rentals in excess of those foreseen to be necessary.”

The results did not clarify how much of the £3.7m was down to Ecobuild.

But the results highlighted “poor stand revenue performance in the UK Built Environment shows” and “lower profit at challenged Q1 shows (most notably Ecobuild).”

UBM bought Ecobuild for £31m in July 2011.

The media firm – which also publishes Building – is looking to offload built environment products as it moves to become an “events-led” business.

Print titles showed a 27% drop in revenue during the first half of the year compared to last time.