Informa, the London-listed group that runs business-to-business trade shows and publishes academic journals, announced two changes to its structure on Tuesday. It is buying a large events company, and it plans to separate the academic publisher it has owned for more than two decades.
Informa agreed to buy Clarion Events from Blackstone for an enterprise value of £2.24 billion, according to its company update. Clarion, founded in 1947 and based in the UK, owns more than 100 business-to-business events, among them IFA Berlin, the consumer electronics show; DSEI, the defence and security exhibition; ICE, the gaming event in Barcelona; and Distributech, an energy transmission and distribution show in North America.
At the same time, Informa launched a process to separate Taylor & Francis, which joined the group in 2004 and has revenue approaching $1 billion. "The planned separation of Taylor & Francis coincides with further expansion in B2B through the £2.24bn acquisition of Clarion, the UK-based owner of more than 100 B2B Live Event brands," said Stephen A. Carter, Informa's group chief executive.
What Informa is paying for
Informa puts the price at 11.1 times Clarion's expected 2027 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Counting the £50 million a year of cost savings it has identified, the multiple falls to about 9 times, and to about 8 times if a targeted £25 million a year of extra operating profit from new revenue also arrives. Informa expects the full savings by 2029, with about a quarter in the first full year, and one-off costs of about £50 million to achieve them.
Clarion is expected to have more than £575 million of revenue in 2027, with adjusted operating margins above 30 per cent, Informa said. Part of that comes from the calendar: about £100 million of the year-on-year increase is from events that run every two years rather than annually, which means 2027 is a strong year for Clarion.
Informa says the combined events business will have revenue of more than £4.2 billion from about 1,000 brands in more than 30 countries.
How it is paying
The price is paid in cash, funded with committed acquisition financing and the proceeds of a share placing. Informa sold about 109.3 million new shares at 860p, raising about £940 million, Investing.com reported. Informa put the placing at about 9 per cent of its issued share capital. Its executive directors and board committed to take part, and Clarion's chief executive, Lisa Hannant, will exchange part of her Clarion equity for Informa shares when the deal completes.
The company is also redirecting money it had been spending on its own shares. "Informa will pause its current share buyback programme in order to redirect capital to fund the transaction, whilst maintaining balance sheet flexibility," the update said. It expects net debt to stay below three times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at the end of 2026 and to fall below 2.5 times by the end of 2027.
Informa expects the purchase to complete towards the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Ms Hannant will keep running Clarion and join Informa's executive leadership team.
The publisher on the other side of the ledger
Since joining Informa, Taylor & Francis has grown its revenue about fourfold, to about $1 billion, Informa says, and publishes more than 2,700 peer-reviewed journals, according to the update. Its underlying revenue growth is about 4 per cent a year, against the 7 per cent or more Informa expects from the enlarged events business.
Informa said it is reviewing "all options" for the separation, and will report the outcome with its 2026 full-year results in March 2027. On the call with analysts, management said the decision was based on its own assessment of the business rather than any approaches for it, according to MarketBeat. "It is now ready to be a standalone business," Informa said during the presentation, MarketBeat reported.
Informa's own figures give the price both ways: 11.1 times earnings before any savings, and about 8 times if every targeted saving and revenue gain arrives. C.H. Robinson made a similar case on Sunday when it agreed to buy RXO on the strength of savings it has yet to make.
The price, multiples, synergy targets, Clarion's revenue, margins and brands, the financing structure, the pause of the buyback, the leverage targets, the timetable and Stephen A. Carter's remarks are from Informa's company update of 6 October 2026. The placing price and the number of new shares are as reported by Investing.com. Informa management's remarks on the call about Taylor & Francis are as reported by MarketBeat, published by Yahoo Finance. Accurate to 3pm ET on 7 October 2026.
Topics businessmergers and acquisitionsprivate equityeventspublishing
