Steve Monnington Managing director Mayfield Media Strategies
Dealmakers
f we were wondering whether Private Equity had been unnerved by the absence of events during Covid-19 the answer is right here , with three transactions showing that both established exhibition owning PE firms and newcomers are making investments .
Tarsus , which was acquired by Charterhouse Capital Partners in May 2019 for approximately £ 561m ( USD $ 767.7m ) has been one of the few organisers that remained active in acquisitions during the pandemic and this has resulted in a partnership with the Hong Kong Printed Circuit Association ( HKPCA ) to jointly produce the world ’ s leading printed circuit board event , the International Electronics Circuit Exhibition ( Shenzhen ) from 2022 onwards . Tarsus has recently been focussing more on the fast growing and strategically important electronics sector in China , acquiring a 70 % stake of the organiser of Touch China in 2019 , which will be co-located with the HKPCA show in December this year .
ROAR B2B was formed at the end of 2019 when Apiary Capital backed former Clarion executive Duncan Kirk and his team for the acquisition of several shows from Prsym Group . Covid-19 meant that , 21 months on , the company is only now running its first events . Apiary kept the faith and ROAR has now added the Environment Media Group ( EMG ) to its portfolio . EMG has been around for more than 20 years providing information and events for the waste management and environment sector through its LetsRecycle event . The original Prsym deal included RWM , the UK exhibition for the recycling , resource and waste management sector so this is a synergistic add-on .
Arc was formed in May 2021 when EagleTree Capital and Canson Capital Partners backed former UBM executive Simon Foster . We have had to wait until now to find out what their first deal is – and it ’ s in agriculture – acquiring the events and publishing assets of Agribriefing . Agribriefing ( formerly Briefing Media ) was formed in 2012 by Rory Brown and Neil Thackray following the acquisition of Farmers Guardian from UBM with the acquisition of LAMMA – the tradeshow for agricultural machinery - quickly following . Croptech and the British Farming Awards were subsequent launches . Having sold these assets ,
Agribriefing will concentrate on the price reporting , news analysis , data and market intelligence that they have developed with over 500,000 professionals in 200 countries using their services .
It has been reported that 70 % of the revenue comes from the Farmers Guardian publication , but we should expect the balance of Arc ’ s portfolio to swing from publishing towards trade events as they run the rule over several additional potential acquisitions in a variety of sectors .
It ’ s been great to see the photos of busy September events from around the world and to hear about the business being done face to face with relieved exhibitors and eager buyers . As this month ’ s analysis of deals illustrates , M & A is definitely back and the pipeline of transactions is very healthy , meaning several more announcements this year and into early 2022 . However , for all the successes there are inevitably challenges . Event suppliers that haven ’ t had the benefit of advance payments that have enabled organisers to weather the storm are particularly susceptible to continuing postponements , especially in countries where low vaccine take up means yet more lockdowns . So it was sad to see the announcement that Freeman Company was closing the Sydney headquarters of its event registration and technology subsidiary company , Info Salons Group , as a result of the financial challenges of Covid-19 . The Info Salons international rollout was so successful that the original Australian business only accounts for 13 % of their worldwide business and the international business will continue .
Transactions this period
Buyer Business Country Sector
Tarsus
Arc Roar B2B Future Informa Emerald Vuka Group
International Electronics Circuit Exhibition
Farmers Guardian / Lamma Environment Media Group Dennis Publishing Wizard World events Wedding School Clarion South Africa ( MBO )
China
UK UK UK / USA USA USA South Africa
Electronics
Agriculture Recycling Finance / Tech Fan Conventions Photography Various
10 Issue 5 2021 www . exhibitionworld . co . uk