Diversified Communications, the acquisitive US-owned B2B publishing and events company, has acquired Aquaculture UK, the biennial fish farming exhibition in Scotland, which next takes place in May this year. The last event, in 2018, claimed 2,400 visitors and 190 exhibitors.
The exhibition is being sold by Benchmark Holdings Plc, a £240m UK listed science-based company operating in the global food, farming and fishing industries. Its subsidiary, which operated Acquaculture UK, had 2018 revenue of £2.8m and an operating loss of £400k. The sale price has not been disclosed.
The Scottish show will complement Diversified’s portfolio, which includes: the events Seafood Expo Global, Seafood Processing Global, International Workboat Show, Ocean Business, Pacific Marine Expo, and Seaweb Seafood Summit; and the media brands National Fisherman, Seafood Source, and Fish eNews.
Diversified is a family-owned B2B media company based in Portland, Maine, which formerly owned local television stations. In addition to fishing, it operates in many B2B sectors including accountancy, architecture, shipping, transportation, and media-marketing across the US, UK, Hong Kong and Australia (where it owns the Mumbrella media-marketing group which it acquired for some A$8m – 8x EBITDA – in 2018).
