Emerald Holdings, the US listed trade show organizer this month reported mixed 2025 financials but reassured investors (notably Onex its long-suffering 91.6% private equity shareholder) that it had no direct exposure to the Middle East, and that it continues to explore what are claimed to be “multiple” would-be bids for the 13-year-old company.
It’s the world’s ninth largest organizer of B2B exhibitions and the largest US-owned one. But its $415mn domestic revenue makes it significantly smaller in North America than the UK-based Informa ($1.5bn revenue in the US) and RX ($500mn). Some 50% of all US trade show revenue is estimated to be events owned by trade associations.
Emerald is the product of former trade show companies, including Miller Freeman, George Little Management (GLM), VNU and Nielsen. It had been acquired for $950mn from Nielsen by the Canada-based Onex and IPOd in 2017 – the year before Informa became the world’s largest trade show group. Emerald has since made some 30 acquisitions totalling an estimated $1.3bn, including an estimated $500mn on 10 deals since the pandemic under CEO Herve Sedky who was appointed in 2021.
Some 25% of the total investment ($335mn) had been spent in 2014 on GLM (the legendary operator of giftware retail trade shows, once owned by the UK’s Daily Mail Group). In a pattern which explains why Onex has (so far) been unable to monetize its investment in Emerald, the company’s enterprise value in pre-pandemic years was consistently less than the price it had paid for GLM – and way below its once-touted $2bn valuation.
GLM was not just an over-priced acquisition; it also weighed Emerald down with revenue from declining retail shows in home furnishings, textiles, stationery, giftware and interiors in the 25 years since Amazon disrupted the retail industry.
The pre-pandemic four years revealed a company, unable to achieve consistent growth (even with its acquisitions) in a consistently growing trade show market.
Fast forward to 2026 and, although Emerald’s current $1.3bn enterprise value and last year’s 5% revenue increase signal its rehab under Sedky, organic growth was just 1% and even less in the fourth quarter. For the 100-event company which has closed no fewer than 55 events in the past two years, the results might imply that its future (and the rationale now for would-be bidders) is based primarily on the c$500mn of acquisitions in the past six years. The company reported a net loss of $30.7mn, compared with a $2.2mn profit in 2024; revenue was slightly ahead of expectation but earnings per share were lower. But, for the first time, its EBITDA matched that in pre-pandemic 2019, although it was 22% behind 2018 – when the company was generating 40%+ EBITDA margins.
| SnapShot Emerald Holdings Inc | ||||
| $mn | 2026* | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
| Rev | 495 | 463 | 399 | 383 |
| Ebitda | 140 | 127 | 100 | 95 |
| Margin | 28% | 27% | 25% | 25% |
| EV | 1.3bn | 1.2bn | 1.0bn | 0.6bn |
| People | 821 | 697 | 673 | |
| Acqns $mn | 258 | 21 | 10 | |
CEO Sedky describes 2025 as “a transformational year… we delivered solid year-on-year growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, excluding insurance proceeds, of 16.2% and 26.8% respectively, along with healthy organic growth”.
He made the point that the $258mn of 2025 acquisitions (This is Beyond, InsurTech Insights, and Generis) – if they had been included in 2024 – would have increased organic revenue by 4.8%. He said the 2025 results “reflect the strength of our diversified portfolio”.
Acquisitions, like those made in 2025 which expanded the presence in sectors such as luxury, manufacturing, and executive peer-to-peer networks “were not about growth for growth’s sake, but about ensuring that we own a well-diversified portfolio of only high-quality events that deliver a real RoI for our customers and long-term value for shareholders. As a result, we believe we enter 2026 with the strongest and most diversified portfolio we’ve ever had, which we believe will drive predictable and highly cash flow generative growth in the years ahead”.
In his first five years as CEO, the former Reed Exhibitions and American Express executive has energetically reshaped the portfolio through acquisitions and also with “the exit of several underperforming brands that didn’t recover post Covid.” But, although the once-crippled Emerald has been transformed and is producing growth and stability, the net impact of the company’s $1.3bn total investment (not to mention Onex’s original $950mn purchase) might seem modest. But it is a real change: in 2019, the former GLM retail shows – long regarded as something of a poison pill by would-be bidders for Emerald – accounted for more than 25% of revenue; in 2025, they are estimated to have been about half that.
But that might be only part of what worries would-be buyers.
Business schools tire of teaching aspiring executives of the need for companies either to be large multi-sector groups or niche specialists; the most vulnerable are the middle-rung companies which are simply smaller versions of the large-scale leaders. Everything about the development of the web and AI has emphasized this need for specialization and focus. However, it motivates many companies to use ever more creative ways to describe even quite mixed-up businesses and to claim an illusory level of specialism and focus.
Is this what Emerald is doing?
The company says its five largest events(probably Kitchen & Bathroom Industry Show, ASD Market Week, MJBizCon, HD Expo and Couture) account for 25% of revenues and that it operates in seven markets: Industrial & Manufacturing; Design & Construction; Home & Gift; Technology, Advertising & Marketing; Luxury; Action Sports; and Food, Pharma & Healthcare. But those stretchy descriptions actually reveal no fewer than 11 sectors including: Hospitality, Compliance, Insurance, Food and Cannabis. Grouping the Pizza Expo under ‘Food, Pharma and Healthcare’ might just give the game away.
The fact is that Emerald has largely substituted the earnings of its legacy portfolio with relatively high-growth acquisitions. But the lack of a real market focus might just constrain the company’s valuation. It is, of course, true that trade shows are frequently sold for more than the 10x EBITDA that is Emerald’s current enterprise value. But those double-digit valuations are most often attached to companies with a more focused portfolio. And the Emerald valuation also wouldn’t be enhanced by the fact that some 9% of its revenue comes from under-profitable publishing and eCommerce activities.
The company’s search for a unifying ‘narrative’ might be complicated by the impact of AI.
We may expect that the most successful events in the future will be those which use AI to create: personalized experiences for attendees, based on historic data, trends and the customer’s own behaviour; advanced lead gen and matchmaking; dynamic pricing and demand forecasting; real-time analytics and crowd management; and post-event insights and followup. Even that short list emphasizes the way that the AI applications of trade show organizers will increasingly sync with business information providers. Suddenly, two distinct B2B sectors can profitably share a lot of data. Blending events data with B2B content and readership analytics would enrich the potential for AI. It’s time for sharing, merging or acquiring – even for a trade show company operating in 11 different sectors.
While many acquisition-conscious trade show companies in the US and Europe have either approached (or been approached by) Onex fruitlessly in recent years, the disclosure of “multiple” negotiations does raise hopes and/or indicates Onex’s determination (finally) to do a deal. It is assumed that the pe firm is determined to use Emerald’s transformation through recent acquisitions to, at least, dramatically reduce its own holding. But the $1.3bn enterprise value of what is, after all, a listed company may dictate some level of shareholding creativity (and eventual write-down) by Onex.
The other problem, is, of course, that the current Gulf conflict (and its possible longer term impact on the world’s economy) may cast a shadow over trade show M&A almost everywhere. Despite the confident Middle East statement by Informa, there is a real nervousness amid forecasts that the Iran war (and disrupted oil shipments) might continue for some weeks yet.
That issue may be even more relevant to Emerald than it seems.
Could it be that Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company (ADNEC), the owner of major trade show venues in London (Excel) and Abu Dhabi (the largest exhibition centre in the Middle East) is considering either acquiring or investing in Emerald?
Our speculation comes from the knowledge that the UAE state-owned operator had been interested in taking a 25% stake in Clarion Events, the world’s third largest trade show organizer, whose $2bn sale was aborted last year. Whether that (or any other) bid for Emerald materializes might, of course, be affected by the impact of the Middle East war. Onex may need to remain patient.
