DMG Events out of the shadows

Three years ago this month, the quaintly-named Daily Mail & General Trust became wholly-owned by its founding family and delisted from the London Stock Exchange after 90 years as a public company. It was a proud event for (Lord) Jonathan Rothermere, fourth generation, 27-year leader of the company long-defined by the UK’s best-selling mid-market tabloid and its transatlantic Mail Online.

He had adroitly cashed-in DMGT’s long-running success in B2B media (divesting Euromoney and the catastrophe-modelling RMS) and in venture capital (selling its share of then high-flying Cazoo car etailer) to remould the one-time £2bn-revenue public company into a £1bn private group centred on its news brands – and some remaining B2B interests in property data and trade shows.

The intervening three years might not have been memorable, but for two things.

First, the on-off auction (still pending) of the Telegraph Media Group was initially dominated by speculation that DMGT would acquire the broadsheet news brand which shared the conservative politics of the Daily Mail but also offered the the opportunity to leverage TMG’s subscriptions expertise. The possible synergies were mouth-watering.

But the prospects of Rothermere’s long-coveted combination of the Telegraph and Mail were seemingly wrecked by the unintended consequences of lobbying (presumably by DMGT and others) to block foreign government investment in a UK news brand. The eventual impact of hastily-enacted legislation on the rejected Abu Dhabi owners of TMG is still open to doubt and DMGT might anyway have been blocked on competition grounds. But it seemed ironic that the Daily Mail owner was effectively forced to abandon his pursuit of the Telegraph by the restrictions on foreign funding which he himself may have required in order to to strike a deal worth the equivalent of 50% of DMGT’s own revenue. Even the UK media’s anti-UAE rhetoric might have had implications for what has become DMGT’s second largest business.

That’s the story of the quiet transformation of DMG Events.

The 36-year-old, Dubai-based subsidiary is one of the world’s top 20 exhibition organisers, primarily focused on energy and construction events in the Middle East. The latest financials show how the trade show operator (like many of its peers) has come roaring back from the lockdowns with 2024 revenue more than double that in pre-pandemic 2019.

In the year ended 30 September 2024, it increased revenue by 67% to £272mn – and is expected to reach £320mn (18% up) in 2025. The company now has a portfolio of some 100 annual events in 25 countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, South Africa, the UK, Canada, and Singapore. It has grown revenue more than 3x in the last four years.

But there’s more.

The trade show organiser, whose activities were once scarcely a footnote in DMGT investor reports, had accounted for a mere 8% of DMGT’s total revenue in 2019. But, by 2024, DMG Events had become 25% of the revenue – and 36% of the operating profit – of the parent company best-known for its newspapers:

Even in the high-return trade show sector whose expansion has attracted (and been fuelled by) salivating private equity, the DMG Events growth has been impressive, more so because it has been almost 100% organic for more than a decade.

The five largest shows – Adipec (Abu Dhabi), Big 5 Global (Dubai), Big 5 Construct (Saudi), Gastech (various) and the Egypt Energy Show – account for an estimated 50% of the company’s £300mn revenue and, presumably, for even more of the profit. Most are some 40 years old and underline the DMG focus on slow-changing fundamental industries like energy, construction, resources and infrastructure. The organic success is underlined by the fact that the energy show Adipec (which attracts more than 200k visitors annually) was once biennial and Gastech was triennial. They, like almost all DMG shows, are now annual which has hugely enhanced both revenue and profit. It is also notable that Big 5 Construct in Riyadh (launched in 2010) now matches the revenue of the 45-year-old Big Five Global in Dubai which itself is estimated to have grown some 8x since its acquisition in 2000.

Much of the 28% increase in headcount during 2023-4 was due to the dramatic growth in Saudi where DMG now employs some 100 people operating more than 30 events, including a new series of food shows.

The emphasis on organic development (and a continual pipeline of new shows) explains the seemingly low margins for a company which continues to generate annual cashflow equivalent to the profit. You can imagine that any kind of commitment to acquisitions (formerly a big part of the DMG Events story) might have accelerated growth in profit and margins. It would also have made the success in 2023-5 a better-known story in the exhibitions industry and beyond.

But that’s where family-owned companies can be different.

Much of the success of DMG Events is attributed to Geoff Dickinson. The British-born CEO was appointed in 2010 after a career journey from computer magazine ad sales to trade shows for Haymarket and the former EMAP before launching his own startups in Dubai. For both DMGT and Dickinson (who has lived in Dubai for more than 30 years), it was a brave appointment of an entrepreneur who had opted out of a corporate career. But he was steeped in trade shows – and in the Middle East.

It proved to be a perfect fit both for the CEO and a parent company that has consistently employed entrepreneurs and founders. It also chimed with the Gulf markets that – for all the rapid growth of recent years – favour people who “belong”. Apart from DMG’s success with the Middle East’s construction and energy shows (where even the rundown in hydrocarbons is very longterm and, anyway, is generating follow-on growth in renewables), the CEO has led the expansion of the company across the Middle East. They’re also growing fast in Africa, especially in South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanazania, Mozambique, Kenya and Nigeria (owner of some 6% of the world’s oil and gas). Africa may now account for some 15% of DMG’s revenue. But the UAE is still an estimated 50% of the company total.

Part of the DMG success in high-growth “new” markets is clearly down to the credentials of the long-established, patiently-investing parent, whose reputation is unaffected by the polarising views of its outspoken Daily Mail in the UK. That’s emphasised by the success in the Gulf and Africa where DMGT is “only” an exhibition organiser, and also by its management of the United Nations COP climate change events, starting in Dubai in 2023.

DMG Events may now be the largest foreign-owned trade show organiser in the Middle East (Informa has some £200mn revenue there). As it comes out of the shadows of the Daily Mail & General Trust, it seems reasonable to predict that the one-time niche trade show player will – in 5-10 years – have revenue of some £1bn. Whisper it, but the parent might then be better known for its trade shows than for its century-old news brands. Wow.