Dealmakers
Steve Monnington Managing director Mayfield Media Strategies
Dealmakers
Steve Monnington Summarises the latest deals in the sector
ince the last Dealmakers column in Exhibition World
S there have been seven transactions with seven different buyers in seven different countries .
The largest transaction was the investment in
Easyfairs by Cobepa , a privately held investment firm based in Belgium and Inflexion Private Equity Partners , best known in the exhibition world for their ownership of CloserStill Media from 2015 to 2018 . Eric Everard , who founded Easyfairs over 20 years ago has sold his majority stake and reinvested a portion of the proceeds and the three parties will own equal shares in the business with the management team continuing to hold a stake . According to sources in the PE world , the transaction values the business at more than € 600m and Flashes and Flames have calculated the multiple as 12.5x year to June 2024 .
The Easyfairs transaction will be eclipsed if Informa complete their proposed acquisition of Ascential for approximately £ 1.2bn . Since Ascential disposed of their non-events business , leaving an events business comprising Money 20 / 20 and Cannes Lions , there has been speculation that another organiser will try to acquire it . The offer equates to a multiple of just under 17x 2024 estimated EBITDA .
Opus Origin have acquired Cologne-based WHD Event , organiser of the tech festival Cloudfest , the largest event for the Cloud and Hosting sector , held at Europa-Park in Germany . The company also organises the MSP Global event for managed service providers which will be held in Barcelona later this year and NamesCon , the world ’ s largest event in the domain industry , and CloudFest USA , both of which are held annually in the USA . The business was owned by a consortium of professional tech investors based primarily in Germany .
Opus was created by Stephen Brooks following the sale of Mack Brooks to Reed and management includes Simon Kimble and Sam Jennings of Clarion fame . in late 2022 they set up InfraXmedia to acquire Data Center Dynamics , a global media and events business dedicated to the digital infrastructure
segment . WHD is their second acquisition and nails their colours firmly to the technology mast .
Terrapinn , who have taken over the mantle of the world ’ s largest private organiser now that Easyfairs are primarily Private Equity owned , have acquired ArabLab Live the Middle East ’ s premier exhibition for the community of laboratory users in Chemical , Energy , Medical , BioTech , Food and Environment industries . Founded in 1982 , Arablab Live has grown to be a significant international event and now boasts 400-500 exhibitors and 10,000 + attendees from more than 120 countries . ArabLab Live joins a portfolio of lab events including Future Labs Live held in the USA , UK and Switzerland . Terrapinn acquired NoVacancy Expo in Australia earlier this year as well as Aerospace Tech Week in 2023 .
Trifecta Collective , the US events organiser run by Rick McConnell and backed by PE firm GreyLion , has entered the Fintech arena with the acquisition of Transact , a marketleading annual event in the payments processing industry from the Electronic Transactions Association ( ETA ). The event rotates between Las Vegas and Atlanta . Trifecta was created in 2022 and has previously acquired the North American Trailer Dealer Association which runs the NATDA Trailer Show , and the International Mass Timber Conference . EW
Transactions in the current period ( June & July 2024 ) Buyer Business Sector Country Inflexion & Cobepa Easyfairs Portfolio Belgium Opus Origin WHD Event Tech Germany Terrapinn ArabLab Live Laboratory Dubai Trifecta Transact Fintech USA IEG InfraFM Expo Property Management Brazil L-Gam MCI Marketing / Comms Switzerland
Mulpha Events
Australian Adventure Expo
Outdoors
Australia
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 4 2024 11