Informa has reached an agreement with Charterhouse Capital Partners and other shareholders to acquire Tarsus, the leading international B2B group, for an initial enterprise value of $940m.
Robert Leeming, partner at Charterhouse, said, “We are proud to have supported Tarsus’ development since 2019 and are confident that Informa is exceptionally well placed to deliver the next stage of the company’s growth strategy. We look forward to becoming a shareholder.”
Tarsus owns and operates a portfolio of 160+ live and on-demand B2B event brands, with a focus on growing, specialist B2B markets with fragmented supply chains and high levels of innovation. The top 10 Tarsus Brands – attracting a total of over 515,000 attendees and 8,350+ exhibitors – will further expand Informa’s Tier 1 portfolio to more than 85 brands.
Since 2019, when Tarsus 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 Tarsus business also significantly benefits from biennial events in odd-numbered years.
The Informa Board believes the combination is both commercially and financially compelling, with strong portfolio alignment that will deliver enhanced value for customers, additional opportunities for colleagues and attractive returns for shareholders. The Informa and Tarsus portfolios are complementary, both geographically and by market category, strengthening Informa’s position across a number of verticals.
Mark Temple-Smith will step in as executive chair of Tarsus through to the end of January 2024. Smith 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, guiding on talent, brands and partnerships.
The combination of Tarsus with Informa is expected to generate c.$20m annualized operating synergies by 2025 through efficiencies in procurement, real estate, technology, event contracts and other areas. The combination is also expected to deliver incremental revenue benefits through cross-marketing of brands, digital expansion and new event launches, as well as harvesting first-party data from Tarsus into IIRIS.
There is strong portfolio alignment in healthcare (Health Connect Partners), beauty & aesthetics (A4M, LiVDerm), packaging (Labelexpo), infrastructure (Intertraffic), aviation (Dubai Airshow), fashion (SIUF, OFFPRICE) and sustainability (Intersolar, Mexico WindPower).
