Dealmakers
Steve Monnington Managing director Mayfield Media Strategies
Dealmakers
Steve Monnington sums up highlights of the past year ’ s major deals
S o , another exhibition M & A year came to an end , with 45 transactions involving 28 different buyers . The number of transactions in 2023 was a little down on the 56 deals that were announced in 2022 , but there were several highlights worth reflecting on .
Informa wins the prize for the most money spent . Their most eye-catching transaction was the purchase of Tarsus Group from Charterhouse for a headline price of $ 940m ( although Douglas Emslie has calculated the final price to be in excess of $ 1bn ). The Tarsus business was integrated into Informa by the end of 2023 and the Tarsus name – created during a meeting between Neville Buch , Douglas Emslie , Ozhan Erem ( one of Mayfield ’ s Turkish clients at the time ) and me – is no more . Informa also acquired Winsight , a US-based event organiser and digital information services group for the food sector , for $ 380m . Other major transactions by Informa were LSX leaders , a network and series of congresses for the Biotech sector , and the HIMSS annual exhibition and conference , acquired from the Chicago based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society .
CloserStill Media wins the prize for the most transactions . The most notable of the five deals completed in 2023 was also their biggest transaction to date which saw them acquire UKI Media and Events , a business that has been on the wish list of many acquisitive organisers for some time . This will form the core of a new Future Transport and Infrastructure division . Other transactions included Open Room Events , CommerceNext and the Hydrogen and Carbon Capture events run by Trans Global Events .
Another important highlight was the privatisation of Hyve and its acquisition by Providence Equity Partners for approximately £ 524m , which means that two of our major organisers , CloserStill Media and Hyve , are now owned by Providence .
2024 has already started with a bang . Ascential announced
the completion of the sale of its Digital Commerce business to Omnicom Group which leaves them with Cannes Lions and Money 20 / 20 and a new CEO , as Philip Thomas replaces Duncan Painter ( who joins Omnicom ). Informa has agreed to combine its digital business with US-based TechTarget , a data-driven marketing services company for technology vendors . Informa will contribute its Informa Tech digital businesses and $ 350m in exchange for a 57 % stake in the combined company .
There are many other big moves to look forward to in 2024 . It ’ s likely that the PE owners of Clarion ( Blackstone ), CloserStill Media ( Providence ) and Nineteen Group ( Phoenix Equity ) will either exit or at least start the sale process this year . There are also rumours that US-based Emerald Expositions are for sale . Another company worth tracking is easyfairs – the largest privately owned organiser with 2022-23 revenues of € 193.8m which makes it Number 11 in the Stax Top 20 ranking of world exhibition organisers by 2022 revenues .
Also worth keeping an eye on and at the start of their journey is Cuil Bay Capital , the new vehicle set up by Douglas Emslie which recently acquired Mike Seaman ’ s Raccoon Media Group in the UK .
Mayfield has two transactions to announce in the coming weeks and we received a record number of inbound enquiries for the potential sale of businesses in the first two weeks of January alone – M & A is definitely up and running in 2024 .
Transactions and partnerships this period . ( December 2023 / January 2024 )
Buyer Business Country Easyfairs Southern Manufacturing UK Max Publishing London Stationery Show UK
IEG
Speciality Food & Drinks Asia
Singapore
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 1 2024 11