A Fusion Deal: Integer Research sold to Argus Media

October 19, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

ArgusInteger Research an independent provider of specialist market intelligence and analysis, consultancy services and conferences has has been sold to Argus Media, the global energy and commodity price reporting agency. Fusion Corporate Partners acted as corporate advisor for Integer Research. The Fusion team was led by Paul Kelly, Director at Fusion. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Integer provides the fertilizer, wire and cable, and emissions control markets with specialist economic and financial analysis, market forecasts, strategy, and benchmarking information, as well as global conferences.

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Paul Kelly

Speaking about the sale, Fusion’s Paul Kelly said, “I’ve known Integer Directors Tim Cheyne, and Oliver Hatfield for four years; I met their third partner, Philip Radbourne at the start of the process. They are a highly professional team with great industry knowledge and expertise. Integer is a great fit with Argus and they will do very well. I wish them every success”.

Integer Managing Director Tim Cheyne added, “This is a natural cultural and strategic fit for Integer and we are excited to build on Argus’ existing global expertise in commodity markets and leverage its technology and platform strengths to the benefit of our customers.”

Argus Media Chairman and Chief Executive Adrian Binks said, “Argus’ acquisition of Integer will expand the range and depth of services we offer to our customers. Integer has a unique product offering and this, combined with Argus’ global reach and scale, will offer users powerful market intelligence and insight.”

Argus first entered the global fertilizer markets with the acquisition of price reporting and events business FMB Consultants in 2011. A company sale project also managed by Fusion Corporate Partners. In 2014 Fusion sold Metal Pages to Argus.

UK, London

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Other Fusion Deals:

Media & Business Information

Exhibitions & Conferences

Business Support Services and Energy & Environmental Services

 

MORE FUSION DEALS

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Terrapinn acquires Solar and Storage Live

October 18, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet
TerrapinnTerrapinn, the global events company, announced today that it has acquired Solar and Storage Live from Solar Media. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Solar and Storage Live is the UK’s leading solar and storage exhibition, conference and awards.
Terrapinn’s CEO Greg Hitchen said, “Solar and Storage Live is a great opportunity to extend our market commitment to the Solar and Renewables space. It fits really well with our Solar Show events which run in South Africa, The Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt and Sri Lanka. And having a show in the UK is really exciting for us.”
Dom Barklem, MD of Solar Media, said, “This move will further enable us to focus on business intelligence, strengthen our global conference portfolio and continue to provide market-leading news content across multiple titles. Our commitment to the UK solar market remains, and we’re excited to support Terrapinn in the growth of Solar and Storage Live.”
Solar Media will continue to support the marketing of Solar and Storage Live.
UK, London
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Blackstone acquires the NEC Group

October 15, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

BlackstonePrivate equity funds managed by Blackstone have acquired the National Exhibition Centre Group, a leading live events venue operator in the UK, from LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

Founded in 1976, the NEC has grown into the UK’s live events business of choice for organisers, exhibitors and visitors, playing host to over seven million guests and 750 events every year. The NEC includes Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, the International Convention Centre, the Genting Arena and Arena Birmingham among its assets as well as caterer Amadeus and national ticketing agency The Ticket Factory.

The National Exhibition Centre hosts many of the largest exhibitions in the UK, including Crufts, the internationally acclaimed dog show, Spring Fair, the UK’s largest exhibition, and Grand Designs Live. The NEC is also due to host nine sports as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

LDC originally backed a management buyout of the Group in January 2015. Since then, it has supported a four-year transformation programme to enhance sites, facilities and customer experience and broaden the range of events across the Group’s portfolio, supported by significant capital investment.

Paul Thandi, Chief Executive of the NEC Group, said: “Blackstone’s track record in scaling companies, sector knowledge and unrivalled real estate capabilities, make them the ideal new partner for NEC Group to realise the next phase of our ambitious growth strategy. All of our teams and partners look forward to working closely with the world class team as we embark on becoming the definitive name in events and exhibitions, while continuing to focus on innovations and new customer experience offerings for all our customer groups.”

Lionel Assant, European Head of Private Equity at Blackstone, added: “Under the leadership of Paul Thandi, a best in class management team and the support of LDC, the NEC has transformed its main site into a leading leisure, entertainment and business destination, which continues to benefit from a diverse customer base. We have tremendous respect for what has been achieved; NEC Group is iconic and we are excited about our new partnership as we look to leverage our firm’s capabilities in support of the team.”

USA, New York, NY & UK, London

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CloserStill Media acquires a majority stake in The eLearning Guild in the US

October 15, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

CloserStillCloserStill Media has acquired a majority stake in FocusZone Media, Inc., operating as The eLearning Guild, for an undisclosed sum. The eLearning Guild has a 40,000+ membership community of learning and development professionals in the United States and across the world. The Guild operates major conferences and exhibitions including DevLearn (Las Vegas, NV), Learning Solutions (Orlando, FL) and Realities 360 (San Jose, CL) and has a number of digital publications as well as research and online events.

CloserStill runs the world’s leading workplace learning event brand, Learning Technologies, with three market leading annual events in London, Berlin (with Online Educa) and Paris, a global digital community and the industry’s leading awards programme for corporate learning and development professionals. The London event in February is Europe’s largest annual exhibition and conference for the workplace learning sector attracting more than 8,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors.

CloserStill’s Learning Group Managing Director, Mark Penton, said, “We are delighted to welcome The eLearning Guild and their impressive event portfolio to our growing global network and are incredibly excited by the huge opportunities this will create. And most importantly, we look forward to enhancing the collaboration between our family of learning brands and their learning communities around the world.”

USA, Santa Rosa, CL & UK, London

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ITE acquires Mining Indaba from Euromoney for £30.1M

October 3, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

ITE Group plcITE Group is to acquire Mining Indaba from Euromoney Institutional Investor plc in a deal worth £30.1 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The acquisition includes an initial cash consideration of £20 million to be paid on completion, with a deferred cash consideration of £10.1 million to be paid in June 2019. The acquisition will be funded from a combination of ITE’s existing cash resources and bank borrowing.

Mining Indaba is a leading event dedicated to bringing together mining and investment experts involved in Africa. The exhibition, held in Cape Town, South Africa, was founded in 1995 and marked its 24th edition in February 2018. The next edition is scheduled for 4–7 February 2019. In the year to 28 February 2018, which encompasses the 2018 event, ITE says Mining Indaba generated sales of £7.2 million (US$9.36 million) and EBITDA of £3.7 million. As at 28 February 2018, Mining Indaba reported gross assets, excluding cash, of £600,000.

ITE chief executive officer Mark Shashoua said, “We are delighted to be able to add Mining Indaba, another well-regarded must-attend event, to our portfolio. This acquisition is consistent with our stated strategy of making disciplined and value-enhancing acquisitions of market-leading events and Mining Indaba is also highly complementary to our AOW exhibition. We believe the acquisition will deliver value for our shareholders and consolidate our position as an organiser of must-attend international industry events.”

UK, London

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Comcast outbids Fox to acquire Sky in £30BN deal

September 22, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Comcast CorporationThe Comcast Corporation is to acquire Sky after an unusual blind bidding auction moderated by the UK Takeover Panel saw their offer of £17.28 per share overshadow Fox’s £15.67 rival offer, for a total of £30.6 billion in cash for the entire issued and to be issued Sky share capital. The bid has already been accepted by Sky’s independent directors and shareholders now have until 11 October to decide whether to accept the recommended offer.

The acquisition ends a two-year bidding war and follows Comcast’s unsuccessful attempt to take over Fox in June, when it lost out to Disney. Sky has 26 million customers across Europe, and has backed the production of shows for Amazon, HBO and Showtime. It’s also well known for its sports broadcasting, such as its Premier League channel. Comcast will soon have a much larger international presence in these fields.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s group chief executive, said: “As part of a broader Comcast we believe we will be able to continue to grow and strengthen our position as Europe’s leading direct to consumer media company. Today’s outcome is down to the hard work of tens of thousands of people who have built and developed this business together over the last 30 years. Sky has never stood still, and with Comcast our momentum will only increase.”

USA, Philadelphia, PA & UK, London

 

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DC Thomson Media acquires Aceville Publications

September 21, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

DC Thomson MediaDC Thomson Media has announced the acquisition of independent magazine publisher Aceville Publications. Headquartered in Dundee, DC Thomson Media has been publishing for over 100 years and has a portfolio of more than 20 magazines, including the much loved brands The People’s Friend and Beano. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Aceville Publications is one of the fastest-growing publishing houses in the UK and home to over 40 in-house brands including the leading UK-based craft titles to gardening, health and food publications. This is complemented by a growing B2B portfolio.

Chief executive officer at DC Thomson Media, Mike Watson, said,“We’re excited to have acquired Aceville and are looking forward to working together. The team at Aceville, and their portfolio, are a great fit for our business and this collaboration opens up a host of opportunities for both businesses. This is a hugely exciting time for everyone at DC Thomson Media and Aceville. This acquisition will materially change our landscape and is a key step in our Protect, Launch, Diversify strategy.”

UK, Dundee & Colchester

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Keywords Studios acquires The TrailerFarm

September 18, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, a services provider to the video games industry, has acquired Brighton, UK based The TrailerFarm Ltd. 

Founded in 2011 by brothers Tony and Dan Porter, TrailerFarm’s team of 12 creative produce trailers for both mobile and console/PC games for use in game launches and ongoing promotional events. In 2018 Keywords acquired Fire Without Smoke which also provides marketing services and produces trailers. 

 In the year ending 30 June 2018, TrailerFarm posted revenues of £1 million and adjusted EBITDA of £165K.  Keywords is paying a total consideration of up to £2 million. The initial consideration of £1 million is made up of £790k in cash and 11,070 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which are to be issued to the sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition. The remaining consideration of up to £1m is payable in cash, subject to the increase in profit before tax of TrailerFarm over the 12 month period post acquisition.

 Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios commented, “I’m delighted to welcome Scott and his team into the Keywords family. As games become ever more immersive, sound design quality is getting ever closer to that of movies. Our new Sound Lab studio, created around Scott and his team, will be integrated within the Keywords Audio Services Line and will benefit accordingly from our global network of studios and our extensive video game client base around the world.  

Ireland, Dublin & UK, Brighton

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Inspired Energy acquires Professional Cost Management Group

September 12, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

inspired-logo3Inspired Energy, an energy procurement consultant to UK and Irish businesses, has acquired Professional Cost Management Group Limited (“PCMG”), a national cost recovery specialist, for up to £700,000. Inspired Energy is making an initial cash payment of £150,000, with a potential further £550,000 subject to the achievement of targets based on future EBITDA performance. 

For the financial year ended 31 December 2017, PCMG had revenues of £2.84 million, EBITDA of £(0.17) million, and a net loss of £(0.19) million. Net assets as at 31 December 2017 stood at £0.7 million.

PCMG provides a forensic auditing service to identify and recover overpayments of utilities and telecoms bills on behalf of its clients and provides optimisation analysis to enable customers to improve their tariff and billing structure. The company was founded in 1993 and was acquired by Alma Consulting Group SAS (a subsidiary of the French Ayming Group) in March 2008.

The Managing Director of PCMG will remain with the enlarged Group after completion and Inspired Energy intends to incentivise the Managing Director and other key employees of PCMG by granting share options in the Group following completion. PCMG is based in Blackpool. The business will be relocated to Inspired Energy’s Kirkham head office on expiry of the current lease that runs to November 2018.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Dickinson, CEO of Inspired said: “We are delighted to conclude the acquisition of PCMG, which is a highly complementary addition to Inspired’s core Corporate Division. The PCMG team and brand are well respected within the sector.”

UK, Kirkham, Lancashire and Blackpool, Lancashire

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Wunderman acquires Amazon-focused content and campaign agency 2Sales

September 12, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

WundermanWPP‘s wholly owned global digital agency Wunderman, has acquired 2Sales International S.A., an ecommerce consulting agency.

2Sales supports global brands in building their business on Amazon, and will become part of Wunderman’s global commerce offering, Wunderman Commerce. 

2Sales employs 66 people in Luxembourg and is a one-stop Amazon solution that utilises automated processes to optimise content generation, sales and promotions across eight international Amazon platforms. Clients include Acco, Columbia, Fiskars and SC Johnson.

UK, London & USA, New York, NY & Luxembourg

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