European Events Organizer Easyfairs Is in the Market for US Companies
By: Christiana Sciaudone
European events organizer Easyfairs is primed and ready to buy and build out the business. Next on their list? U.S. companies.
In July, Cobepa, a privately-held investment company, and Inflexion, a London-based private equity firm, completed strategic investments in Easyfairs, which was founded nearly 30 years ago by Eric Everard. PE Hub reported the deal was valued at over €600 million (~$650 million).
Cobepa, Inflexion and Everard hold equal representation in the partnership that is designed to “empower Easyfairs to accelerate organic growth with new event launches and geo-clone existing successful event brands, broadening its geographic and sector presence. It will also enable the group to strengthen its leadership in big data and AI technologies and unlock additional strategic M&A opportunities.”
The company usually does about four to five acquisitions a year.
“Knowing we have these new partners on board, really, the goal would be to accelerate much more than what we were doing so far with our private means,” Anne Lafere, chief executive officer at Easyfairs, told AMO. “The goal is certainly to double in the next four to five years.”
Easyfairs is looking to buy assets amid a relative drought of deals thanks to high U.S. interest rates and sellers who expect to be paid more than buyers have been willing to fork over. That could change in 2025 as rates come down—if more slowly than anticipated—and private equity firms get antsy after holding onto companies in their portfolios for longer than usual.
Beyond Europe
Easyfairs operates eight venues in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands, and organizes about 110 event titles annually across 12 countries. About 90% of shows are B2B in industries from packaging and logistics to manufacturing, hospitality and construction. Some 90% of revenue is derived from event organization, with the rest coming from its venues.
“The U.S. is definitely one of the geographies we would like to explore further,” Lafere said. “We would love to be more present in fast growing industry verticals like healthcare or tech, that would be great.”
The industry verticals they are presently in are stable ones, where there is disruption, as well as burgeoning issues surrounding artificial intelligence that provide extra potential volume and “allows us to add a layer of sexiness to all these sectors.”
Beyond the U.S. and other new markets, Easyfairs sees additional growth in current countries like Germany, Italy and Spain. This could take the form of tactical, tuck-in acquisitions that reinforce a cluster where they are already active—like the recent purchase of nearly three-year-old UK Metals Expo, which covers the metal supply chain, and adds to Easyfairs’s network of industrial events. Those include more than 30 manufacturing and industrial processing exhibitions.
The company also does “geo-clones,” where they launch an existing concept in a new location.
Profitable
Through June 2024, revenue totaled €260 million ($271 million) with an EBITDA of €52 million ($54 million). The company, with about 900 employees, is profitable. It does not disclose exact figures.
While there continues to be real appetite for face-to-face encounters, Lafere noted that big global shows have struggled to recover their volume.
“We live in a world where it’s really a call for highly targeted events, or highly regionalized or highly verticalized, where people will find domestic suppliers, which is good for us, because our model is more all in regional, national shows,” Lafere said. “We go to the heart of markets.”
Global inflation has also led companies to look for cost savings, which supports more local events.
“In a world where inflation is high, where time is scarce, they are looking for ways to get high returns on investment,” Lafere said. “You need to come up with the right model or the right format of event.”
In that, data is critical and harder to obtain in Europe with more privacy regulations than in the U.S. However, Lafere said people have been willing to give their data if they can get a personalized experience.
“If they can get recommendations to personalize their agenda, recommendations on content, on products, on exhibitors, on connections, then they will be willing to give you the data and to fine-tune their profile so that the recommendations will be the right ones,” she said.
