Steve Monnington Managing director Mayfield Media Strategies
Dealmakers Steve Monnington casts his eye over the M & A landscape
M
& A activity is gathering pace with 15 transactions in the last two months . There are three deals that stand out .
Three and a half years after selling MacBrooks to Reed , Stephen Brooks has set up Market Dynamic Media ( MDM ) with Clarion ’ s Simon Kimble as chairman . Their first acquisition is DCD International ( DCD ) – Data Centre Dynamics – focused on the data centre sector . DCD started out life in 1988 as a publishing business , before moving into training and conferences . As a result of Covid-19 , greater emphasis was placed on digital content and now the revenue (£ 8.4m in 2021 ) splits into 60 % online ( marketing , broadcast and interviews ) and 40 % from face-toface training and events . More acquisitions will follow and will continue to focus on online driven businesses with niche tightly defined communities that own monetisable high quality data .
This column has featured Arc Group several times in the last year but their most recent transaction – acquiring a portfolio of event and related media assets serving the HR Technology (‘ HR Tech ’) and Education Technology (‘ Ed Tech ’) sectors from LRP Media Group – is their largest acquisition to date . It ’ s a significant pointer to Arc ’ s desire to build a global business with twin UK and USA hubs and it follows hard on the heels of their acquisition of another US business – HighQuest which runs a series of agriculture investment conferences in New York , Tokyo and London .
We don ’ t often see M & A activity between professional advisers but confirming the view that event M & A is growing in importance , US-based global strategy consultancy Stax has acquired strategy consulting firm AMR International . Stax specialises in commercial due diligence and exit planning for private equity firms and investment banks and , with the increasing number of PE firms owning UK-based exhibition organisers , clearly sees Europe as an important market . With its strong experience in the events sector AMR is a logical entry point into Europe and AMR founder Denzil Rankine and partner Florent Jarry will head up the European operation .
The last year has been a triumph for the return of live exhibitions across most parts of the world and the consistent M & A activity shows long term faith from investors in face-to-face events . However , at the time of writing , China is experiencing its highest Covid-19 infection rate in six months and four million people are locked down in Guanghou . China ’ s zero tolerance policy on Covid-19 and the subsequent continual postponement of exhibitions has resulted in China ’ s listed exhibition companies reporting losses in the nine months to 30 September 2022 .
Meorient showed an increase in revenue from 2021 as a result of being able to hold some events but still lost $ 1.8m ( 2021 same period – loss of $ 6.3m ). DLG Exhibitions & Events ( formerly Shanghai Lansheng ) was able to hold fewer events than in 2021 and lost $ 812k ( 2021 same period $ 12m profit ). It just shows what a lottery this is with each city responding individually to small Covid-19 outbreaks with full lockdowns .
Transactions and partnerships this period . Buyer Business Country Sector
Arc Group
Woodward Communications
Woodward Communications
Diversified Communications
Diversified Communications
Market Dynamic Media
Nineteen Group Nineteen Group Stax William Reed Kenes Blue Ant Media IEG IEG ICA Events
HR Tech , Ed Tech In-Business
Insight Publications
Smart Energy Decision
Northern Restaurant & Bar
Data Centre Dynamics
InstallerSHOW Drives & Controls AMR Rethink Events ExpoELearning
Toronto Home Shows Singapore Int ’ l Jewellery Restaurant Asia , Café Asia Hyve Turkey
USA USA
USA
USA
UK
UK
UK UK UK UK Spain Canada Singapore Singapore Turkey
HR / Education Business
Portfolio
Energy
Hospitality
Tech
Industrial Industrial Consulting Agri & Food tech Education Home Shows Jewellery Hospitality Portfolio
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 6 2022 11