The roadmap to the reopening of large events on 21 June if all goes well , not only comes as a relief to organisers but also means that acquisition projects that were put on hold in March last year can finally be dusted off . Even before this , here at Mayfield Towers we had started to see the beginnings of M & A activity , as the concept of visibility for events as a |
result of the vaccine rollout had started to give buyers greater confidence to restart discussions . It will take several months to get a sense of who the likely buyers in 2021 and 2022 will be and which businesses will come to market . The general consensus is that the profitability of businesses won ’ t get back to 2019 levels until 2022 or 2023 and we are |
already seeing that longer earnouts are likely to be negotiated as a way of both de-risking the acquisition for the buyer and getting full value for the seller . In my EN 2020 round up , I showed that since March last year , M & A transactions were running at 35 % of the level seen in 2019 and it ’ s clear that activity remains subdued through the start of 2021 with just four |
transactions to report on . The two main organisers in Singapore , SingEx and Sphere Exhibits have merged their businesses . As well as owning a portfolio of shows across Asia , SingEx Holdings operates the Singapore Expo venue together with their Max Atria convention centre and at the end of 2018 won a tender bid to continuing operating both venues for at least 10 years . Sphere is |
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