Steve Monnington rounds up a busy period for M&A activity.
It’s been another busy couple of months, primarily across UK, USA and Germany, with ten acquisitions and strategic partnerships announced.
The biggest deal of the period was Informa’s purchase of Winsight. Fresh from spending $940m on Tarsus, they have acquired Winsight, a US-based event organiser and digital information services group for the food sector, for $380m.
Winsight is forecasting an EBITDA of $35m for 2023 coming from a combination of trade shows for the restaurant sector (including National Restaurant Association Show) and training, information services and research and analysis. The business joins a portfolio that includes Natural Products Expo (Philadelphia and Anaheim), Supplyside West (Las Vegas) and Vitafoods (Geneva).
Arc Group continue to be the most prolific acquirer in terms of the number of transactions with two more deals in this period. The first is UK-based Marketing in Partnership (MiP) operating in the asset management sector. MiP organises its own events – Joint Investment Conference, Select, and Global Investment Management Summit – as well as providing marketing solutions and organising events on behalf of its clients.
The acquisition will complement some of the brands run by Incisive Media (Investment Week Professional Adviser) which they acquired in April last year.
They also acquired Renewable Energy Events, which runs Low Carbon Agriculture and consists of Energy Now Expo, Environmental Business Expo, Farm Technology Expo, and Low Emissions Vehicle Expo. It will become part of the Agriconnect business. The Agri portfolio includes Farmers Guardian and LAMMA, which kickstarted the whole Arc buy and build journey in August 2021.
Raccoon Media Group is on an interesting journey. From its inception in 2016 with the launch of the National Running Show it has evolved into a fully formed media business with ten exhibitions and a digital platform. Initially the focus was on consumer shows for outdoor sports but the recent acquisition of the Allergy and Free From and Just V show brands extends the focus into lifestyle and nutrition.
At the other end of the spectrum, US B2B media company WTWH Media has signed an agreement to acquire Aging Media Network, a digital platform for the senior care and behavioral health sectors. WTWH run events across the Engineering, Healthcare and Life Sciences, and Foodservice, Retail, and Hospitality verticals.
Congratulations are due to two Blenheim alumni. Doug Emslie was awarded with this year’s AEO Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Industry’, while Paul Thandi has been promoted to chairman of the NEC Group.
