Informa to buy rival events firm Clarion for £2.2bn amid strategy overhaul

Corporate events organiser Informa has revealed plans to spin off its academic arm and raise £940 million to help buy business-to-business specialist Clarion Events in a deal worth £2.24 billion.

Informa said the deal to buy Clarion from private equity giant Blackstone will add more than 100 event brands to its portfolio, including trade shows in defence, electronics, energy and gaming.

The FTSE 100 firm said that after the deal, business-to-business live events will make sales of more than £4.2 billion across around 1,000 specialist brands in more than 40 market categories across over 30 countries.

It will part-fund the acquisition with a £940 million share placing, which represents around 9% of Clarion’s total share capital.

Informa announced the move to separate its Taylor & Francis academic division, allowing it to focus on its core business-to-business operations, boosted by the Clarion deal.

It said it will review “all options” for the division, which it said was generating almost a billion US dollars (£750 million) in revenues.

The review will look to “best support the future growth and development of the business”, Informa said, adding it would publish the results in March.

Stephen Carter, group chief executive of Informa, said the announcements “mark the latest step in a growth strategy that has seen business-to-business revenues grow ten-fold since 2014, whilst generating more than 3 billion US dollars (£2.26 billion) of value in business intelligence and lifting Taylor & Francis revenues four-fold since it joined the group.”

He added: “With Taylor & Francis approaching 1 billion dollars in revenue… we believe it will now benefit from greater flexibility and freedom through the next phase of its development, as Informa further expands the depth and reach of its business-to-business portfolio.”

The Clarion deal will add “further depth” in North America and Asia and “significantly” strengthen its European position, according to the group.

Clarion is expected to generate revenues of more than £575 million in 2027, with adjusted operating profit margins of more than 30%.