CHICAGO — After making a conditional proposal to acquire Ascential, Informa PLC has confirmed plans to buy the specialist information, data and analytics company in an approximately $1.5 billion deal.
Ascential, which owns Money20/20 and the advertising festival Cannes Lions, is reported to have “recently simplified its business to be mainly focused on events, with additional revenues from associated subscription and advisory services, making it an easier acquisition for Informa,” according to Financial Times.
The deal helps to strengthen Informa’s position as the largest events business in the world, and with a market capitalization of more than $14 billion, Informa is well poised to expand the Ascential events. News of the deal also follows the company’s announcement of its half-year results, which showed revenue growth of 11% and underlying operating profit growth of 18.8%.
“The Ascential announcement comes on the back of a particularly strong set of half-year results that demonstrate that our strategy of investing in core and immediately adjacent markets is yielding compelling results. To accelerate this strategy, we have recycled the proceeds of the Informa Intelligence divestiture at 28x to acquire Ascential, Tarsus, Winsight and HIMSS at an average of 11x on a post-tax and cost synergy basis. Should the proposed acquisition proceed, we will be pleased to welcome new colleagues from Ascential, who are experts in developing and delivering superior customer experiences through festival-like events,” said Alex Roth, Group Director of Strategy and Business Planning at Informa PLC.
According to the UK’s Independent, Ascential shares surged 26.4% after the deal was announced, and shares in Informa were up 3.8%.
Stay tuned to Trade Show Executive for more details on the news.
