News
The Dealmaker
Steve Monnington of
Mayfield Media Strategies
runs the rule over the latest
global exhibition deals
A
long with Reed Exhibitions, Tarsus
were the most prolific acquirer in
2019 with six transactions driven by
the capital deployed by Charterhouse
Partners since it acquired the business
in August last year. 2020 sees a
continuation of the acquisition pace
and a first move into the Beauty sector
with the acquisition of a majority stake
in Access Beauty Insiders, organiser of
Unfiltered Experience, a series of four
beauty events in the USA. The first
event of the year took place recently in
Las Vegas alongside Tarsus’s OFFPRICE
show, a clothing, footwear, jewellery
and accessories merchandising show, a
logical combination since OFFPRICE
can offer up their beauty sector buyers.
The three remaining 2020 shows take
place in LA, Nashville and Chicago.
Another of the main acquirers in 2019
with four transactions was CloserStill
Media, majority owned by private equity
firm Providence. It also continued its
acquisition activity into 2020 with
the acquisition of Zufunft Personal
Europe, the largest event in Europe
for the human resources sector from
owner Spring Messe. Deutsche Messe
(Hannover) acquired a majority stake
in spring Messe in 2012. The show joins
CloserStill’s network of five learning
and development events in Berlin,
London, Paris, Las Vegas and Orlando
which originated with the acquisition
of UK based Learning Technologies in
2009.
US organiser Questex have been
quiet on the acquisition front since
Mid-Ocean partners acquired the
business from Shamrock Capital in
September 2018, but they have broken
their silence with the acquisition of
Informa’s Live Experience portfolio.
The assets acquired include Live
Design International Conference and
Tradeshow (LDI) for professionals who
design live events. Club Industry Show –
a conference for the fitness sector – and
World Tea Expo – a leading event for the
tea industry. Over the last year, Questex
has streamlined its business into two
main areas - beauty/hospitality/travel
and life sciences/technology.
Last month Comexposium announced
its intention to acquire the healthcare
conference organiser Europa. Now it
“Over the last year, Questex has streamlined its
business into two main areas - beauty/hospitality/
travel and life sciences/technology”
08 — March
has announced exclusive negotiations
to join together with Vinexpo Holding,
owned by the Bordeaux-Gironde
Chamber of Commerce. The resulting
JV will be the largest organiser of wine
and spirit events with 10 events across
the world. Comexposium owns Vinisud
and Vinovision in Paris as well as World
Wine Meetings and World Bulk Wine
Exhibition. Vinexpo Holding organises
five Vinexpo’s in France, Hong Kong,
Shanghai and New York as well as the
series of Vinexpo Explorer events.
SAE International has acquired UK
based conference organiser SMi Group.
SMi are active in the defence, energy
and pharma sectors, and the business
will be merged with SAE’s Tech Briefs
Media who publish magazines and have
a digital presence in many sectors,
including Aerospace and Defence
Technology, Automotive Engineering
and Photonics.
The German Messes are continuing
to acquire trade shows in India. Messe
Munich India has acquired World Tea
and Coffee Expo (held in Mumbai) to
add to its beverage trade fair portfolio.
Nurnbergmesse has acquired SCaT
India, India’s largest exhibition for
the Indian Satellite, Cable TV, DTH
and Broadband sector to add to it’s
2016 acquisition of Broadcast India,
the leading Indian trade fair for TV
production.
Private Equity owned home show
organiser Marketplace Events has
acquired the Cincinnati Holiday Market
from Hart Productions, bringing the
total number of acquisitions under
Sentinel Capital Partners to 13,
including another show – Cincinnati
Home & Garden Show acquired from
Hart in 2017.