There were six transactions in September, bringing the total for the year so far to 45. Four of these were shows created by entrepreneurs and now being sold to larger organisers. The entrepreneur is the bedrock of the exhibition sector and it’s fair to say that the major organisers wouldn’t exist if entrepreneurs hadn’t taken risks and launched the shows which they were able to acquire. Both the publicly-quoted organisers (eg Informa, RX and Emerald) and those owned by private equity (eg Clarion, CloserStill Media and Nineteen Group) have, throughout the years, acquired the great majority of the shows that now comprise their portfolios.
The publicly-quoted organisers are (understandably, perhaps) more risk averse when it comes to launches and the private equity model demands the deployment of capital and high growth by acquisition towards exit in 3-5 years to maximise RoI, so the dependency on acquisitions is hardly surprising. This cycle is only possible if there are entrepreneurs willing to take the risk and launch events that can become market leaders and are available to acquire. It’s no surprise that a key part of due diligence for potential incoming PE buyers is the pipeline of potential acquisitions. (See today’s Flashes & Flames story on Toby Duckworth’s plan for a funding accelerator for event startups).
Notable exceptions to the high acquired/organic ratio are the privately-owned organisers such as EasyFairs which has historically grown by organic launches and has only recently themselves been 66% acquired by private equity. Terrapinn is another example of a truly organic (privately-owned) business, but both companies are increasing the pace of acquisitions and regularly feature in DealMakers – including this month.
The $150mn-revenue Terrapinn announced the acquisition of EVCS Productions, organiser of the EV Charging Summit & Expo in the USA, an annual conference and trade show held in March in Las Vegas, featuring 250+ exhibitors and over 5,000 delegates. The event is still relatively early stage, founded by Luke Vinci, Byron Mignanelli and industry veteran Galen Poss and first held in March 2023. Terrapinn’s growth over the last few years, which according to data from Stax has seen it entering the Top 20 largest organisers based on 2024 revenue, has been largely predicated on the successful rollout of its Solar and Storage portfolio and has given them more firepower for acquisitions. EV Charge Live has been established in the UK, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia and the addition of a US event is significant both for the growth of the EV portfolio and its overall business in the US.
The acquisition means two deals in a month for Terrapinn, following its purchase of Digital Health Festival, in Australia.
Easyfairs announced the acquisition of ChemUK Expo from founder Ian Stone. The show focuses on chemical supplies, chemical & process engineering and chemical laboratory equipment. Launched in 2019 and first held at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate, the show graduated to the NEC where the 2025 edition attracted over 5,000 attendees and 550 exhibitors. It’s easy to see why Easyfairs was attracted to this – it’s the event it would have launched if it didn’t already exist. It fits well into the Easyfairs portfolio of events such as Lab Innovations, StocExpo (bulk liquid storage and energy infrastructure), Pumps & Valves and Solids.
This is the pan-European organiser’s fourth acquisition of the year, having already bought the Nordic Organic Food Fair (Sweden), the Digital Accountancy Show (UK) and EPHJ (Precision Manufacturing) in Switzerland. ChemUK Expo is another example of entrepreneurs taking a risk and surviving through COVID in the early years of the business, to create a valuable event.
CloserStill Media has gone one better, announcing its fifth acquisition of the year, buying US company Billington Cyber Security, producer of public sector cybersecurity conferences and events. Founder Tom Billington, who set up the company in 2010, will remain as CEO. Billington produces events and webinars for the Cyber Security sector with the main event – the Annual Billington Cybersecurity Summit – in its sixteenth year. The US is an increasingly important part of CloserStill’s growth strategy having acquired artificial intelligence event AI4 in March and PARCEL Forum in June.
Centaur Media announced two further disposals which go a long way to completing the breakup of the listed UK company founded by Graham Sherren in 1981. Legal Benchmarking Group (LBG), the ex Delinian/Euromoney business, has acquired Centaur’s legal division for £43mn representing 16 x 2024 operating profits. The main product is The Lawyer, a UK-based legal weekly, launched in 1987 for law firms and legal professionals. The sale also includes associated events including The Lawyer Awards and The Lawyer Summit. LBG has four specialist legal brands – International Financial Law Review (IFLR), Benchmark Litigation, International Tax Review (ITR) and Managing IP – was itself acquired earlier this year by Triple Private Equity. The Centaur transaction is LBG’s first under its new ownership.
In a follow up transaction, Centaur also sold Marketing Week, Festival of Marketing, and Creative Review to Haymarket Media Group for £3.9 mn. In recent years, Centaur has sold off event and publishing brands to Future plc, Metropolis, Northstar, DVV Media, Mark Allen Group and, in July this year, its MiniMBA e-learning business to the Brave Bison digital marketing agency. After this month’s divestments, Centaur will have cash of around £71mn and all that remains in the business is Econsultancy, Influencer Intelligence and Fashion & Beauty Monitor which are expected to be sold soon.
To Greece, where FORUM S.A, a subsidiary of NürnbergMesse Group has acquired Greek trade fair and publishing company O.MIND CREATIVES. The company was founded in 2005 and operates events in the logistics sector (Supply Chain & Logistics and Cargo Truck & Van) and Food sector (Meat & Grill Days, Dairy Expo and Frozen Foods).
There are a surprisingly high number of buyers for what is becoming an increasingly consolidated sector – there have been 26 buyers for the 45 acquisitions this year and 41 buyers for the 63 deals in 2024. Tarsus co-founder Douglas Emslie’s appointment to the board of Life Science Connect, in the US, foreshadows its entry into live events this year or next. That signals the arrival of another potential acquirer and the Life Science sector has several entrepreneur-led businesses likely to come to market over the next couple of years. Join the dots…
DealMakers is published by Flashes & Flames on the first Friday each month.
