Steve Monnington, MD of Mayfield Media Strategies, reports on a flurry of M&A activity.
There was a flurry of activity at the end of 2013 with several of the major international organisers making important strategic acquisitions in key markets.
Turkey saw a lot of M&A activity in 2013 and the final deal of the year saw UBM acquiring 75 per cent of NTSR, organiser of six leading trade exhibitions – Europort, Intertraffic, Growtech, Istanbul Light, Boatshow and Boatshop. NTSR is the largest private (non-venue) organiser that has remained independent and it has already been working with UBM for the launch of key brands such as CPhi and Ifsec.
It is UBM’s third acquisition in Turkey following Rotaforre (jewellery) and
Ef-Em (baby show).
Informa has made an important move into China with the partial acquisition from Baiwan of CBE, the country’s largest beauty trade exhibition. The deal has been a long time in the making and consolidates Informa’s position in both China and in the beauty sector. Beauty is one of the most hotly contested sectors with ITE acquiring 50 per cent of Malaysian organiser ECMI, running beauty shows, in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as recently acquiring Beauty Eurasia in Turkey. UBM also recently announced the launch of PhilBeauty in Manila.
Deals in Brazil have been fairly scarce this year following the previous buying frenzy but Reed Exhibitions has added to its travel portfolio with the acquisition of Travelweek Sao Paolo. This is a young (launched in 2011) luxury travel event which joins the ILTM portfolio of shows in Cannes, London, Shanghai, Mexico, Kyoto, and Cape Town which Reed secured last month as part of the acquisition of Thebe.
Unlike Brazil which, like Turkey, is more or less internationalised now, Mexico hasn’t seen many deals so far. One of the long term operators there is US-based organiser EJ Krause and it has formed a 50/50 joint venture with Tarsus in respect of its Plastimagen (plastics) and Expo Manufactura (metalworking and manufacturing show). The JV marks Tarsus’ entry into Mexico and will be the main vehicle for the development of its business there. The new relationship between Tarsus and EJ Krause goes further than Mexico as Tarsus announced the launch of EJK’s EXPO COMM in Indonesia as part of the IIICE event it acquired (51 per cent) from PT Infrastructure.
Tarsus also moved into Thailand with a new joint venture with Inter-Media Consultants, organisers of the Thailand International Motor Expo. The JV is for the launch of AAITF, the Auto Aftermarket show that Tarsus originally bought into in Guangzhou. The Thai joint venture is a carbon copy of the JV that Tarsus formed in Indonesia earlier this year with Dyandra, organisers of the Indonesian International Motor Show. This was originally for AAITF but was expanded to include the replication of Zuchex, the Housewares & Giftware show that Tarsus acquired in Turkey.
We finish this month in Europe where Centrexpo, the Italian organiser of shows such as Converflex (packaging/converting), and Grafitalia (graphic arts and print media) acquired the remaining shares that they didn’t already own in Ipack-Ima – the triennial packaging and processing show held in Milan.
2014 looks set to be another interesting year for M&A, especially in the emerging markets.
This was first published in the January issue of UK-based Exhibition News. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
