Highly complementary portfolios
Photo: Dubai Air Show 
Informa has reached agreement with Charterhouse Capital Partners and other shareholders to acquire Tarsus, the leading international B2B group, for an initial enterprise value of $940m. The acquisition is funded with cash and $210m of new Informa shares (around 26m shares based on 30-day volume-weighted average share price), with equity forward valued by the seller at 850p.
The acquisition of London head-quartered Tarsus – a company that Informa has tried to buy twice before – will help expand the event organiser's reach in the United States, Asia and Middle East, Informa chief executive officer Stephen Carter told Reuters.
„We have long admired the Tarsus business which, like Informa, has been built around major brands in attractive, specialist B2B markets in the growing regions of Asia, China, the Middle East and the Americas.“
The top 10 Tarsus brands – attracting a total of around 515k attendees and 8,350+ exhibitors across roughly 385k net square metres of floor space – will further expand Informa's Tier 1 portfolio to more than 85 brands. Since 2019, when Tarsus plc was acquired by Charterhouse, the Tarsus portfolio has been expanded and enhanced through 24 new launches and 11 targeted acquisitions. Like Informa, Tarsus is seeing a similar strong return to the market for live and on-demand B2B events in 2023.
The Informa and Tarsus portfolios are complementary, both geographically and by market category, strengthening Informa's position across a number of verticals.
Informa colleague, Mark Temple-Smith, will step in as the executive chair of Tarsus from completion through to the end of the combination programme in January 2024. Mark is currently Informa Markets chief operating officer and was formerly the CEO of Asia for Tarsus. Douglas Emslie, the current chief executive of Tarsus, will become a senior advisor to the Informa Group through the combination programme, guiding on talent, brands and partnerships.
At the time of the announcement of the acquisition, Informa published its 2022 full-year results, reporting around 43% revenue growth (£2,262m), around 59% adjusted operating profit growth (£496m) from continuing businesses.
www.informa.com