Cover Feature
“There’s a lot of money around, and
lots of people are looking to buy”
to go down the private equity route,
at that point it wasn’t the right time. I
started talking to Phoenix probably late
summer. At the time they were talking
to Peter and thinking about buying
Western Business Exhibitions.
I was talking about investing and
becoming managing director. It wasn’t
just a question of saying, ‘go on, I’ll give
you my money and I’ll join’, it was, ‘do
we think she’s the right person and will
she complement Peter’s skills?’ It’s still
early doors but the business has huge
potential. The frustrating thing for
me is that there aren’t many processes
because it’s pretty much a start-up.
We’ve got Western in east Grinstead,
Nineteen in Wimbledon, and everyone
has a different system for everything. It’s
early doors but in terms of trading, and
in terms of the people, the opportunity
is huge. It’s just overwhelming deciding
what to do first.
As our partners Phoenix are
encouraging us to spend and to build the
business rapidly, which is great because
in a big corporate it can sometimes
take a long time, this is a lot faster.
It’s just a question of what to do first.
Our problem is that there’s so much
potential it’s about which one to pick,
but we do have a couple of acquisitions
on the table.
Nicola Macdonald, EN editor: In a
similar industry?
AJ: Complementary…
NM: Peter, have you ever been on the
acquiring side before?
PJ: Normally I’ve been acquired.
That’s where our skillsets fit. Alison has
been on the other side of the fence as
an acquirer. From having been acquired
many times I understand it from the
seller side, and that’s actually put us
in really good stead. We’re very close
to acquisition number two. Invariably
you’re dealing with a smaller business
there are anxieties about their future,
home and family. Buying stuff isn’t
necessarily easy, especially as what we
feel is very interesting is off-market
acquisitions – we’re looking for the
stuff out there that’s good but that’s not
obviously for sale.
AJ: There’s a question of influencing
the seller to sell to us and not go through
a process and a bidding war. There’s a
lot of money around and lots of people
looking to buy. We’re in the trade show
market and there are still a lot of them
around, plus we don’t have a minimum
turnover or profit to buy. We’d buy
something smaller than perhaps UBM
would’ve looked at in the past. But even
when you get in front of them you still
have to win hearts and minds.
NM: What is the seller-buyer power
dynamic in the industry at the moment?
AJ: There’s a lot of cash around.
Everyone can afford to buy, and it’s a
question of finding out what deals are
off-market, which is quite a lot trickier.
We’re talking to someone at the moment
who will definitely sell, at some point.
There’s a bit of luck involved. They have
to know that if they’re going to sell to
you then you’re not going to ruin their
baby. There’s an art.
PJ: The difficult thing is that these
people aren’t in the mindset of selling
their business, and they’re not in that
mindset because once you get a trade
show to a certain point, if you’re in years
four and five you’re making a profit.
AJ: You can have a nice life living off
that.
PJ: It’s a lifestyle. There can be initial
excitement about selling and a bit of
upfront cash but then what do you do
after that? That’s the challenge.
AJ: And a lot of vendors are scared
by private equity. They think they’re
going to change everything, and a lot of
corporates do change and make people
relocate. The beauty with us is that we’re
quite happy to let them get on with it.
NM: Will WBE continue to exist as its
own business?
AJ: For now it will stand alone as part
of Nineteen Group and we’ll help them
run their shows.
NM: Did you feel that private equity
was a route that would enable you
to maintain the identity of Nineteen
Group?
PJ: That’s what really appealed to us.
We had an opportunity to sell the show
March — 23