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Centaur sells
Meetings Show
to Northstar
Centaur Media Travel and
Meetings Ltd, which includes
the Business Travel Show and
The Meetings Show, will be
sold to Northstar Travel Media
UK Ltd for a cash consideration
of £9.25m.
Northstar Travel Media UK
is an arm of US-based B2B
Northstar Media Group, a
global information and
marketing solutions company
serving the travel industry
including leisure/retail,
corporate/business travel,
business and sports meetings,
incentives, and travel
technology.
New £400m London investment for
‘entertainment and hospitality’
A new £400m (US$520m)
investment fund has been
established for the city of
London, which will be used for
the hospitality and
entertainment sectors, as well as
education and healthcare.
The fund is established by
Astarte Capital Partners, a
global investment platform
based across Europe, North
America and Australia.
The group says the focus of
the fund is on transforming
“prime infill and edge-of-prime
real estate into institutional
quality future-core assets
predominantly across Greater
London”.
Infill means the rededication
of land in open, urban spaces for
new construction. Prime and
edge-of-prime do not denote any
geographical areas of London,
but suggest investment into a
largely Central area.
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
Astarte says the fund will
initially be deployed across 8-10
investment opportunities,
though it has not disclosed
what these will be. Astarte
Special Opportunities Platform
(ASOP), the firm’s co-investment
vehicle, is leading the investment
in the new platform and
providing its structure.
Astarte says it “looks for asset
opportunities driven by
megatrends such as
demographics, smart cities and
sustainability.”
Teresa Farmaki, Co-Founder
and partner of Astarte Capital
Partners, said: “We strongly
believe that this is the right time
for institutional capital to be
looking at London.
“Our new platform will give
investors the opportunity to
invest in edge-of-prime,
off-market real estate in the
attractive London market.”
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ISSUE 100
The long-awaited disposal
follows Centaur’s decision last
October to explore divestment
of its smaller businesses “in
order to simplify the Group’s
structure and to focus
management resources on its
leading brands”.
The company announced
earlier this month that it had
raised £5m from the sale of its
financial services business,
which includes the Money
Marketing and Mortgage
Strategy brands.
Andria Vidler, CEO of
Centaur, commented: “The
announcement is another
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important milestone in
Centaur’s ongoing
transformation. As we focus on
building more robust and
stronger recurring revenues,
we are reducing Group
complexity and overheads that
will allow us to deliver
efficiencies and improve our
operating margins.
“Our travel and meetings
exhibitions have made a
valuable contribution to
Centaur and to the industry
over the years, and I would like
to take this opportunity to
thank the team for their
commitment.”
New CEO for Events Industry Council
The Events Industry Council (EIC) has announced the
appointment of Amy Calvert as its new Chief Executive
Officer after a global search process, which considered 50
qualified potential candidates from around the world.
Candidates were considered by an EIC board-appointed
search committee chaired by Carina Bauer, CEO, IMEX
Group. It eventually chose Calvert, who currently serves as
Senior Vice-President of Convention Sales and Services with
Visit Baltimore.
Bauer commented: “Our search committee was seeking a
leader who brings a proven track record of business growth,
collaboration and strategic global vision. Amy’s dedication to
advancing this industry and vision for EIC were key factors in
our decision.”