Reed Exhibitions to acquire Mack Brooks Exhibitions

January 15, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

Reed ExhibitionsReed Exhibitions, a division of the RELX Group, has agreed to acquire Mack Brooks Exhibitions, adding a major line-up of industry-leading brands to Reed’s global portfolio. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Mack Brooks Exhibitions was established in 1965 and features more than 30 B2B events in 14 countries, including Germany and the UK, serving nine industry sectors. Flagship brands include EuroBLECH (sheet metal working technology); inter airport (airport infrastructure and technology); Fastener Fair (fastener and fixing technology); Chemspec (fine and speciality chemicals); RAILTEX (rail infrastructure and technology); ICE Europe (paper, film and foil converting); CCE (manufacturing and converting corrugated and cartonboard); PSE Europe (plastics) and InPrint (print technology for industrial manufacturing).

A broad programme of geo-cloning has successfully positioned many of these brands and related adjacencies outside Germany and the UK to include a presence today in countries including France, Italy, the United States, Mexico, China, Singapore, Thailand, India and Turkey.

Chet Burchett, CEO of Reed Exhibitions, said, “Mack Brooks is widely recognised as a market leading exhibitions organiser and bringing these shows together with Reed Exhibitions’ own strengths in delivering customer value and innovation represents an exceptional opportunity, For customers, we will be able to add value through capabilities such as our International Sales Group, innovative digital tools and increasingly sophisticated customer matchmaking programmes. For employees, Reed Exhibitions will provide exciting new opportunities. The acquisition is in line with our organic growth driven strategy, supported by acquisitions of targeted show portfolios that are natural additions to our existing business.”

UK, London & St. Albans

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Next 15 acquires Planning-inc for up to £15M

January 11, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

Next15Next Fifteen Communications Group plc, a digital communications group, has acquired Planning-Inc Limited, a predictive analytics and data marketing business.

Planning-inc is a UK-based marketing, data and technology agency. Following the Acquisition Planning-inc will continue to operate as an independent brand as part of the Next 15 Network.

The initial consideration for the acquisition is approximately £6.3 million, made up of £5.4 million in cash and the issue of 187,943 new ordinary shares in Next 15. Further deferred payments may be payable around April 2019 with a top-up payment based on the EBITDA performance of Planning-inc for the year ended 31 December 2018, and around April 2021 and April 2023 based on the EBIT performance of Planning-inc in the 2-year periods ending 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2023 respectively. The maximum total consideration is expected to be £15 million.

For the year ended 31 December 2017, Planning-inc reported EBIT and profit before tax of £1.3 million, and gross assets of £2.7 million.

The senior management team will continue to lead the business which includes clients such as Argos, M&S, Halfords and Sony.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15 commented: “Next 15 believes marketing is a technology and data-driven activity. As a result we are committed to investing in these areas alongside the creative aspects of marketing. Planning-inc’s focus on using data science and analytics to inform and design great marketing programmes fits beautifully with our strategy. We are excited to have them as a part of the group and believe they will work with a number of the agencies in the group”.

UK, London

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Arrow Business Communications acquires European Utility Management

January 10, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

arrow-communicationsArrow Business Communications has acquired European Utility Management Ltd, an Energy broker specialising in Property Development and Management companies. EUM will be integrated into Pulse Business Energy, the energy specialist division of Arrow.

London based EUM was founded by Stephen Perfect in 1998 and has successfully installed electricity and gas connections for temporary builders, landlord and commercial supplies, energy centres and domestic plots. The company also assists clients to minimise costs through bulk purchasing energy and reducing energy consumption.
All EUM employees will join Arrow, including Stephen who will become a member of the Pulse management team and play a key role in customer management.

Chris-Russell-CEO-of-Arrow-e1547117069161Chris Russell, CEO of Arrow commented, “We’re delighted to welcome Stephen and his team on board and equally excited to bring their skill set and market specialism to Pulse. We believe EUM’s customer focus and passion is a great fit for Pulse and look forward to offering those customers access to POD and the highest levels of customer service”.

UK, Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside & London

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Arrow Business Communications acquires Abica and PCR IT

January 8, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

arrow-communicationsArrow Business Communications has acquired Abica Ltd and it’s subsidiary PCR IT Ltd. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Abica and PCR are providers of Telecoms and IT services with offices in Glasgow. Arrow have previously made other acquisitions in the Scottish telecoms market, Orca Telecom in 2015 and Siebert Telecom in 2017.

All of the Directors and employees of Abica will be staying on and will work within the Arrow group. David Munro and Gregory Barnett, founders of Abica, will continue to lead a number of key customer relationships and day to day activities. Gregory Barnett comments, “With Arrow’s long history of building successful businesses in the telecommunications sector, we couldn’t be happier about integrating Abica into Arrow. It bodes well for an exciting future over the coming years”.

Abica has around 650 customers and has deployed a range of solutions covering Connectivity, Mobility, IoT, and Unified Communications for both private and public sector organisations. The recent acquisition of PCR IT brought further IT capability into its solution portfolio.

Chris-Russell-CEO-of-Arrow-e1547117069161Commenting on the acquisition, CEO of Arrow, Chris Russell said: “This was our third acquisition in 2018 and becomes our largest one to date. Abica further strengthens our presence in Scotland and combined with our existing business there will create a real Scottish Powerhouse. The Abica and PCR teams have a wealth of experience in delivering solutions to customers whilst maintaining the strong relationships they have built up over the years, which is exactly how we strive to conduct our business in Arrow”.

UK, Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside & Glasgow

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Sovereign Capital Partners backs MBO of Utility Bidders

January 7, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

utility bidderPrivate Equity Buy & Build specialist Sovereign Capital Partners has backed the management buy-out of Utility Bidder, an energy broker, offering energy procurement services to UK, SME customers.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2009, and headquartered in Corby, Utility Bidder employs around 100 staff and has a sales office in Manchester. The company currently brokers energy and other utilities contracts to over 14,500 SME clients across a number of industry sectors in the UK.

sovereignUtility Bidder has performed strongly growing sales by over 40% in the current year. The team is led by an CEO, Chris Shaw; Sovereign has augmented the management team with the appointment of Mark Wood, formerly CEO of Axa UK, as non-executive Chairman. Founders James Longley and Sally Martin remain with the business, James as Utility Bidder’s MD.

Jeremy Morgan, Partner at Sovereign, said, “We are very pleased to be supporting this business and strong management team in what is a burgeoning market. Utility Bidder has already achieved tremendous success and enjoys established relationships with both its SME customer base and its energy suppliers.  We look forward to working with Chris and the team to help take this top ranked energy broker to the next stage of growth.”

UK, London & Corby, Northamptonshire

Posted in B2B Services, Consultancy, Energy & Environmental Services, Outsourcing, Private Equity, Procurement, ~Europe. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Hachette acquires SPCK’s Sheldon Press

January 4, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

Hachette UKHachette UK has acquired Sheldon Press, a specialist medical, mental health and self-help imprint of the Christian knowledge publisher SPCK. It will become part of John Murray Learning. The terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

John Murray Learning will be retaining the Sheldon Press brand and has committed to announcing a full reissue programme plus “ambitious” front-list plans “in the near future”.

Sheldon Press has over 150 titles in print, covering a large range of mental and physical health issues faced by individuals in the developed world. The list includes eight titles on the Reading Well ‘Books on Prescription’ recommended reading list and a number of prize-winning titles at the British Medical Association Book Awards. Among its best known titles are Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong by Tim Cantopher and Curing Arthritis the Drug Free Way by Margaret Hills.

Nick Davies, Managing Director of John Murray Press, said, “We are delighted to welcome the authors of Sheldon Press to Hachette UK. We already have an excellent reputation in mental and physical health publishing thanks to a number of market-leading titles on our John Murray Learning and Jessica Kingsley lists, and this reputation will only be enhanced by this new relationship with Sheldon. We plan to expand the range and scale of our publishing and look forward to taking these important books to new audiences in the months and years ahead.”

UK, London

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Marlowe acquires property health and safety consultancy William Martin valuing the business at up to £30M

December 21, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Marlowe+PLC+logoMarlowe plc, the support services group, has acquired William Martin Compliance Solutions Limited and Ivor Roy Limited for an implied total enterprise value of £30.0 million.

Formed in 2004, William Martin is a leading technology-enabled UK provider of property-related health and safety audit and consultancy services. It provides recurring consultancy alongside a leading software-as-a-service compliance platform to a wide range of commercial customers across the UK to ensure regulatory compliance in areas such as health & safety, fire safety, water safety, asbestos management and contractor management. The business employs approximately 100 staff and has offices in London, Leeds and Norwich.

Through providing consultancy services integrated with Meridian, its proprietary software platform, William Martin enables customers to manage risk and statutory compliance across their properties. William Martin’s services significantly extend Marlowe’s capabilities towards providing its customers with a comprehensive approach to their health & safety and regulatory compliance needs, from initial audit through to full implementation, and are expected to generate significant cross-selling opportunities.

For the year to 30 April 2018, William Martin generated revenues of £7.5 million, EBITDA of £2.3 million at a margin of approximately 30%, and profit before tax of £2.4 million. Approximately 85% of William Martin’s revenues are recurring. As at period end, the business has net assets of approximately £2.3 million.

Alex Dacre, Chief Executive of Marlowe Plc, said, “The acquisition of William Martin significantly accelerates our strategy of providing our customers with a comprehensive one-stop approach to their health & safety and regulatory compliance needs. William Martin is a market leader which shares a similar channel to market with our existing businesses and benefits from strong relationships with customers who place a high value on the consultancy and software services. We are confident that this acquisition will generate attractive returns for Marlowe’s shareholders.”

UK, London

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RTL Netherlands acquires media company BrandDeli

December 20, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

RTL NetherlandsRTL Netherlands is to acquire BrandDeli, the sales house for the Discovery, Fox and Viacom brand portfolio for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is the result of RTL Netherlands, Discovery Benelux, Fox Networks Group Benelux and Viacom International Media Networks entering into a strategic sales partnership as of 1 January 2019.

RTL will be granted the right to sell advertising space for at least three years for the Discovery, Fox and Viacom brand portfolio, offering a wider range of spot time, branded partnerships and online (video and display) advertising space.

Advertisers will have access to a larger overall reach, especially in younger target groups in both daytime and prime time slots. Discovery, Fox and Viacom also keep the opportunity to sell their own airtime.

Ton Rozestraten, CCO RTL Netherlands, said, “In five years, BrandDeli has grown into a successful company that we look at with admiration. Cooperation enables us to market an even wider and more varied range of products with the beautiful brands that BrandDeli represents. It fits in with our growth strategy to strengthen our position as a local player within the globalising playing field. Like no other, we are able to reach the masses with high-quality programmes and digital propositions. By combining this strength with BrandDeli’s rich cross-media offering (apps, social media, linear TV and websites), we offer advertisers access to an even more varied and growing fan base.”

Netherlands, Hilversum & Amsterdam

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Providence acquires CloserStill Media for £340M

December 19, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Providence EquityFollowing our earlier report, Providence Equity Partners has now acquired CloserStill Media, the previous owner of Clarion Events, for a reported £340 million.

The move comes after years of significant growth for the organiser, which was valued at £25 million in 2012 when Phoenix Private Equity bought into the company and £125 million in 2015 when Inflexion bought a minority stake.

Since the Inflexion investment in 2015 the organiser has made eight acquisitions – five in 2017 and three in 2018 – but CloserStill Chairman and CEO Phil Soar highlighted that the majority of the company’s growth has been organic. Much of the growth has come from the geo-cloning of successful shows in Asia, Germany and the US, with the launch of events such as Cloud Asia, Learning Technologies Germany and New York Vet.

In 2011 Providence acquired George Little Management in the US, which was then sold to Emerald Expositions in early 2014. In 2017 the company sold Clarion Events to Blackstone for a reported £600 million.

Andrew Tisdale, Managing Director at Providence, said, “CloserStill is an exceptional business led by a strong management team with a proven track record of developing and acquiring successful events around the world. With a compelling global portfolio and diverse customer base across the technology, learning and healthcare sectors, CloserStill is well-positioned to accelerate the momentum the business has generated to date. We are excited to partner with such a fantastic team and look forward to working together.”

USA, Providence, RI & UK, London

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Bertram Group acquires Education Umbrella in first bolt-on acquisition under new ownership

December 12, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Bertram BooksThe Bertram Group has acquired Education Umbrella, a leading supplier of books and digital learning resources, in its first strategic bolt-on acquisition under its new ownership. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bristol-based Umbrella Education provides print and digital learning resources to schools around the world. Founded in 2011, the company has launched Education Umbrella Press, a digital publishing platform and technologies including TECbook, an online eBook system which converts books from top educational publishers into digital format and TECvideo, a video-based learning tool.

Chief financial officer of Bertram Group Nicholas Goodwin said: “We are delighted to announce Bertram Group’s strategic acquisition of Education Umbrella, a company which in a short time has grown to become one of the key players in its market. Education Umbrella is an exciting business that with sound financial backing has great potential for future development as part of Bertram Group.”

UK, Norwich & Bristol

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