Steve Monnington of Mayfield Merger Strategies reviews the recent deals in the exhibition and conference market.
In my February column I looked back to 2016 and noted that Emerald was among the most prolific acquirers that year prior to its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in May 2017.
Fast forward to 2025 and it has certainly made a statement of M&A intent with three transactions announced at the same time as the announcement of its 2024 full year results. Having drifted down from $5 per share in November 2024 to $3.65 prior to the announcements, its share price has jumped up 18% back to $4.33 on the news.
The most interesting aspect of the acquisitions is Emerald’s new focus on the UK market. Up until late 2024, it had no UK businesses in its portfolio until it acquired GRC World Forums, a portfolio of events centred around Governance, Risk and Regulation.
Two of the three transactions announced recently are UK businesses with a global portfolio of events. The largest, West London-based This is Beyond (TiB), produces seven premier B2B events in the experiential and luxury travel sector.
The business was founded by Serge Dive who previously created International Luxury Travel Market, which RX (then Reed Exhibitions) acquired in 2007. TiB was launched in 2009 and has top-end events in Marrakech, Cape Town, Miami, New Orleans, Bali, Utah and Borgo Egnazia in Italy. The transaction is expected to complete in early April following regulatory approvals.
Emerald has also acquired Insurtech Insights from entrepreneur Mads Forhault. The business, also based in London, was founded in 2018 and is run by CEO Kristoffer Lundberg. It’s a leading platform for insurance technology professionals with events in London, New York and Hong Kong and is Emerald’s first entry into the insurance technology market.
According to the NYSE announcement, the combined acquisition price for the two transactions together was $160m (£124m). Here at Mayfield Towers we were lucky enough to represent the TiB shareholders in what is our largest value transaction to date.
Emerald’s third acquisition is Plant Based World Expo, acquired from JD Events and comprising shows in New York and London. Food sector shows are a particular target for Emerald. It acquired Pizza Expo in 2015 and in 2023 added Cocina Sabrosa Food & Beverage Trade Expo, the only B2B event in the USA solely dedicated to the Latin food and beverage market.,
Emerald is targeting several more acquisitions in 2025 both in the USA and in Europe. It is targeting fast growth businesses where it can use its infrastructure to accelerate the growth whether these be strategic acquisitions in existing sectors or brand new sectors.
CloserStill Media is another business busily targeting M&A in 2025. It followed up its January purchase of UK-based Digital Health Intelligence by acquiring German HR show Personalmesse München from family-owned AFAG Messen und Ausstellungen.
The origins of CloserStill’s German HR business lie in its acquisition of Spring Messe (from owners Deutsche Messe) in early 2020 which brought it Zufunft Personal Europe, the largest event in Europe for the human resources sector. With a third 2025 transaction to be announced within days of this column, CloserStill has started the year strongly.
Easyfairs has acquired Digital Accountancy Media, organiser of the Digital Accountancy Show. The show, held annually at Battersea Evolution, was launched in 2020 by Dan Cockerton and James Howell and marks Easyfair’s first move into the accountancy sector.
The Financial Times Group doesn’t feature regularly in Dealmakers as an events acquirer but its FT Live division has been expanded with the acquisition of Invisso, organiser of conferences for the structure finance, bond and private credit markets.
Events include Global ABS, The Covered Bond Congress, The Central & Eastern European Forum, and The Global Borrowers and Bond Investors Forum. Invisso was previously owned by Delinian (originally descended from Euromoney) which sold real estate conference business IMN (Information Management Network) to Informa last year with more divestments to follow.
Law Business Research (LBR) and ALM – two PE owned leaders in the legal sector have merged creating a global provider of legal intelligence, analysis and events. LBR is backed by ICG and Levine Leichtmann Capital Partners and ALM is owned by EagleTree Capital who also back Simon Foster’s Arc Network.
The merger involves the legal portfolios of both businesses – the ALM business and finance division which includes media properties in financial services, insurance and commercial real estate will be retained by EagleTree. Although the transaction is described as a merger, Bill Carter, president and CEO of ALM will step down and Nick Brailey, CEO of LBR, will assume the role of group CEO of the newly combined business.
ALM is USA centric running more than 60 events including its flagship tradeshow LegalWeek NY, an annual event for the legal industry covering business and regulatory trends, technology and talent and also hold the American Lawyer Industry Awards.
LBR is more global running legal conferences around the world including IPBC in Europe and USA focusing on Intellectual Property, Global Arbitration Review (GAR) Live in Europe, USA, Mexico and China and Global Competition Review (GCR) in Europe and USA.
Informa, the world’s largest exhibition group recently announced its 2024 results with revenue growing by 11.4% to £3.6bn and adjusted operating profit increasing by 23% to £995m. At the same time, it announced that it will form a joint venture with Dubai World Trade Centre, owner and operator of the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Dubai Exhibition Centre.
This is a no cash consideration joint venture, which will combine the exhibitions, conferences, professional training and accreditation businesses of both companies in Dubai in the region to create a business with revenues of $700m+ and with expected operating margins of at least 30%.
Market leading brands in the combined portfolio will include WHX (Healthcare) Middle East Energy, Dubai Airshow, Gulfood, GITEX (Tech) and GISEC (Information Security).
Informa will hold a 52% stake in the new JV, which will be named Informa International and the transaction is expected to complete before the end of 2025. This is timed nicely for the completion of Phase 1 of the expansion of the Dubai Exhibition Centre, which will result in 140,000 sqm of additional exhibition space in Q1 of 2026. Overall, this expansion will see a doubling of large scale events from 300 to 600 by 2033.
