GL events has announced its acquisition of 60% of Johannesburg Expo Centre 2002 Pty Ltd (JEC).
The global group has been present in South Africa for 10 years through its subsidiary, GL events South Africa, which deploys the group’s event services solutions (GL events Live).
JEC is the largest exhibition centre in Africa (42,000sqm of indoor space on a site totalling 510,000sqm) and hosts some of South Africa’s biggest trade shows, including the Rand Show, Bauma, Electra Mining, Propak Africa and Automechanica.
The company has 16 employees and is a shareholder of Dogan Exhibitions and Events Pty Ltd, the exhibition organiser for the Rand Show, South Africa's iconic consumer exhibition that celebrates its 125th edition in April 2019.
The acquisition further reinforces GL events’ presence in South Africa, the largest event industry market on the African continent. It is a market that GL events believes will grow 7% per annum until 2021, exceeding the country's GDP growth.
The Montgomery Group is an existing shareholder of the JEC and will retain its ownership stake alongside GL events. Montgomery organises 50 shows in 15 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Middle-East and Africa.
GL events says its acquisition will allow the group to deploy the integrated business model which has underpinned its success and achieve combined annual revenue in South Africa of more than €15m.
GL events’ activities are organised into three major business divisions. GL events Live offers expertise covering all business line specialisations and services for corporate, institutional and sports events to provide turnkey solutions from consulting and design to staging the event itself.
GL events Exhibitions manages and coordinates the group’s portfolio of 300 proprietary tradefairs covering a wide range of sectors.
GL events Venues, meanwhile, manages a network of 48 venues in over 20 countries. GL events has 4,300 employees.
