Following recent movement in the company’s share price, the Board of Ascential, owners of the Cannes Lions festival and Money20/20, has confirmed, 23 July, that it has received a conditional proposal from UK events group Informa PLC to acquire the entire share capital of Ascential at 568 pence per share – approximately £1bn.
A statement from Ascential said the Informa proposal follows a number of approaches by the group to Ascential in recent months.
The Ascential Board said it was engaged in advanced discussions with Informa and was minded to recommend the proposal.
Informa is required, by not later than 5pm. (London time) on 20 August 2024 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Ascential or announce that it does not intend to make an offer.
The proposed acquisition price reflects the strong rebound in in-person conference and events business post-Covid.
Informa is yet to comment officially on the Ascential statement.
Ascential employs about 700 people and had a market capitalisation of £749m as of 23 July.
Informa is capitalised at around £11.3bn and the company has grown steadily since the pandemic. Under group CEO Stephen Carter (pictured), Informa acquired events group Tarsus from Charterhouse Capital Partners for $940m last year.
Informa is due to report its half-year results on 24 July but told EW it wouldn’t be commenting at this stage on the news from Ascential.
M&A specialist, MD of Mayfield Merger Strategies, Steve Monnington said: “This is not unexpected and is good news for exhibition M&A. I have speculated for a while about the continuing breakup of Ascential now that their non-events business has all been sold. However, the Ascential management seemed clear that they wouldn’t countenance selling Lions and Money20/20 separately, so the move by Informa is logical – they are both great large scale events. The premium of approx 33% to the current market value puts Ascential in a difficult position. They may well reject the offer but an enhanced bid would put them under some pressure.”
Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk
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