Mayfield Media Strategies MD Steve Monnington charts the latest M&A activity and finds that if you’re not already in Turkey, you’re too late.
After the BRICs comes MIST - Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey - coined by the recent SISO meeting in the US as the latest collection of hot emerging markets.
The first two are clear enough. Mexico has a large number of privately owned exhibition organisers so it’s a market that seems ready for some M&A activity. Reed Exhibitions expanded their presence there further this quarter with the acquisition of Expo Nacional Ferretera, the largest event in the region serving the hardware, construction and electrical markets. The show, which is around 53,000 net sqm, fits well with Reed’s National Hardware Show in the USA and augments Reeds growing portfolio in Mexico, having acquired Expo Seguridad, the leading safety and security show last year.
Indonesia also has a good number of entrepreneurial local organisers but the international companies courting them are finding it hard to consummate the relationship. UBM has established its own business there, as well as creating show specific joint ventures with leading organisers such as Dyandra and Debindo. Reed and Tarsus have also entered the market and ITE recently announced the acquisition of 50 per cent of ECMI in Malaysia, which includes two shows in Indonesia. It has also announced its first Indonesian launch, Paperex, through the ECMI joint venture.
South Korea has so far been quiet on the international front and I haven’t seen much business development noise coming from the international organisers. The UFI Congress takes place in Seoul in November this year and maybe this will be the catalyst for the start of the internationalisation.
The internationalisation of Turkey has been well documented and is all but over so I’m not sure why it’s on the list. There are probably six remaining independent organisers who are of interest to the international organisers and we should expect most of these to tie up a partnership deal before the end of 2013. Anyone who is not already there is too late.
MIST may be the brave new world but China is still where most of the action is with more transactions this quarter. These include Fiera Milano entered acquiring 75 per cent of Worldex China, and Reed Huaqun creating a partnership with ShanghaiMart to streamline the Housewares and Gift exhibitions in Shanghai.
This was first published in Issue 3/2013 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
