DEALMAKERS

Getting it right

Steve Monnington of Mayfield Merger Strategies rounds up the latest M & A activity

Exhibition M & A activity continues to increase . We ’ re not just seeing this in the deal announcements - here at Mayfield Towers we are busier than ever , negotiating offers for several businesses and preparing information memorandums for new projects . Almost all of the acquisitive organisers we talk to have a strong pipeline of potential transactions with several having agreed terms and carrying out due diligence . This should translate into acquisition announcements over the next few months . Covid has now become a blip in historic trading patterns – strong current trading underpinned by robust future contracted revenue is giving buyers confidence . My analysis of how the acquisition of Tarsus by Informa for $ 940m , can be read at exhibitionnews . uk . The transaction , which was announced on 9 March , formally completed on 17 April and the integration process has begun with a target of combining the two businesses by the end of the year . Meanwhile , the proposed acquisition of Hyve by Providence Equity Partners has now been agreed following an increased offer . After an offer of 105p per share was rejected , Providence increased their offer in mid March to 108p per share . After some pushback from a number of large shareholders , the offer was increased further to 121p per share which was accepted on 3 May by 87 % of shareholders . The final price values the business at approximately £ 524m . Although this is being trailed as a multiple of 22.1x EBITDA for the most recent financial year to 30 September 2022 , the reality is that the business hadn ’ t reached full recovery during that period . The plc to private equity owned company is a journey that Tarsus took in 2019 and never looked back . We now see how that particular journey ended with Informa strengthening their position as the world ’ s largest organiser . Conversion from a public quoted

Summer — 15