Dealmakers
Steve Monnington
Managing Director
Mayfield Media Strategies
Dealmakers
arsus Group took a further step in the business
information arena with the acquisition of several media
properties from North American Journeys Inc (NAJ).
The assets include three RTO (Receptive Tour Operator)
Summits which are based on one-to-one scheduled appointments
rather than traditional exhibitions and Active America China
which focuses on building inbound Chinese tourism into North
America. The assets acquired also include the Inbound Report and
TourOperatorLand.com. The acquisition was made by Connect
Travel, one of the US divisions of Tarsus, and follows the acquisition
of eTourism Summit (also purchased from NAJ) in March last year.
Tarsus originally acquired 80% of Connect Meetings in December
2016 and bought out the remaining shareholding in earlier this year.
In November last year, UK-based Centaur Media announced the
sale of several of their divisions – including three exhibition divisions
– in a move that would focus their activities on the marketing sector.
Given the diversity of sectors (travel, engineering and human
resources) it was unlikely that one buyer would acquire everything,
despite the critical mass that such a purchase would bring. Over
the last couple of months we have seen each business acquired by a
strategic buyer.
The travel division, which consists of the Business Travel Show,
Meetings Show and Travel Technology Europe, has been acquired
US-based Northstar Travel Group who already produce 75 events
in 13 countries in travel, hospitality and the meetings industry. The
human resources division, which consists of Employee Benefits
Live, Employee Benefits Connect and the Forum for Expatriate
Management, has been sold to DVV Media International, the UK
subsidiary of German publisher DVV Media GmbH. DVV covers
both transport and logistics and HR sectors and already publishes
Personnel Today. Mark Allen Group, organiser of the Engineering
Design show will acquire the engineering division comprising
The Engineer magazine and the Subcon and Advance Engineering
exhibitions.
While we’re waiting for the next exhibition acquisition in China
to be announced by GL Events, it’s worth considering the speed
at which they have moved so far this year. In October 2018, they
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
announced a Rights Issue which raised €106m from its existing
shareholders primarily to fund acquisitions in China and Japan.
Since then they have made three acquisitions in China. Firstly they
acquired a majority stake in ZhongZhiXing, a company involved in
logistics and event organising services. Then, at the end of February,
they created a joint venture with the state-owned China Council for
Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT2) by acquiring 55% of CIEC
Union, organiser of six exhibitions in Wallpaper, Curtains, Home
Décor and Building Materials, representing a significant move into
mainstream exhibitions.
They followed this up with an agreement to acquire 60% of the
shares of Shenzhen Sheng Shi Peng Cheng Exhibitions, organiser
of the Fashion Source exhibitions in southern China. Fashion Source
covers fabrics and accessories for the fashion sector and runs twice
a year in Shenzhen and complements GL’s 49% stake in Premier
Vision, the leading event for fabrics and services for the fashion
industry, held in Paris.
Transactions this period:
Buyer Business Country Sector
Northstar Travel Travel Division – Centaur UK Travel
DVV Media
International HR Division –
Centaur UK HR
Mark Allen Group Engineering Division –
Centaur UK Industrial
Bonhill Group Last Word Media UK/HK Finance
Tarsus RTO Summits USA Travel
Marketplace Events Portfolio of Home shows USA Home Shows
Reed Exhibitions Florida SuperCon USA Pop Culture
Reed Exhibitions Packplus India Packaging
Nuremburg Messe Mattresstech Expo India Furniture
GL Events Fashion Source China Fashion
Terrapinn Accounting Business Expo Australia Finance
IQuest Ireland Portfolio
Sunday Business Post
Issue 3 2019
11