An Informa event pictured in a company promotional video.
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It is buying Penton Information Services from private-equity firms MidOcean and Wasserstein and the U.S. firm’s senior management.
Shareholders are being asked to stump up £715 million of the cost through a fully underwritten rights issue at 441p a share.
The sellers will receive GBP1.11 billion consideration in cash and GBP76 million in new Informa equity, with a holding period of up to one year.
Informa itself has a market value of around £4.5bn, and employs more than 6,000 people globally across its five divisions of business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge, events, and support.
“We have been very focused on growing in the U.S. over the last few years”, chief executive Stephen Carter said.
Barrett Gilmer, managing director of MidOcean Partners, and Anup Bagaria, co-managing Partner of Wasserstein & Co said: “Following extensive and exclusive discussions with Informa, we are delighted this transaction will take Penton to its natural next stage, combining two strong portfolios of exhibitions, data and information services businesses that will derive significant benefits from greater scale and worldwide reach”.
The global exhibitions sector has been consolidating in recent years, with major deals such as UBM’s $972 million purchase of US events group Advanstar Communications in 2014, but remains highly fragmented.
Its exhibitions division runs 170 trade and consumer shows annually around the world, including events such as World of Concrete, Arab Health and China Beauty Expo.
Informa will take charge of Penton’s portfolio of 30 exhibitions and more than 100 print and digital business publications, including digital subscription data brands Equipment Watch and Aviation Week Intelligence Network.
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Informa was undeterred by the U.K.’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union, which caused a plunge in the pound.
