Cover Feature
From left to right: Phil Soar, Kevin Keck, Alison Jackson, Peter Jones
and start again, an opportunity to sell
the show and go into a big corporate,
but the thought of rocking up to the
City to my desk every Monday morning
wasn’t particularly appealing. Private
equity felt like the best of both worlds.
We’re still small and nimble but with the
funding to implement the structure and
resource that we need to grow. We still
have the entrepreneurial flair of a small
organisation.
NM: Is it a matter of working out your
identity as you continue to grow?
AJ: We’ll buy lots of different
businesses and each will have their own
identity. At some point someone will
ask what our ‘culture’ is, and the reality
is that we don’t know yet. But I think it
won’t look like a corporate. We’re not
going to attract people by saying ‘we
have an amazing office’, it’s not the right
environment for someone who would
prefer to work in a corporate world with
lots of processes. It’s a small business
with huge potential.
PJ: I’ve been in the position so many
times when I’ve launched something and
tried to encourage really good people to
work on it and a lot of people get excited
about the word ‘start-up’, because ‘start-
up’ means excitement, it’s edgy, it’s the
unknown and uncharted. Now we can
attract people with the reassurance that
we have the structure and the support
behind us, whereas previously, being a
one-man band, it was far more risky.
The appeal of the
exhibition industry
The past few years have seen private
equity companies such as Blackstone
and Inflexion taking an active interest
in the exhibition industry, particular
businesses that organiser trade events.
We asked Phoenix director Kevin
Keck why Nineteen Group felt like an
attractive investment.
KK: Phoenix has been an investor
in the sector before with CloserStill
and we’ve been looking for the best
opportunity to reinvest since then. We
believe that Nineteen is the best way for
us to invest again in the sector. There’s
the common link in Phil Soar, who
chairs CloserStill and chairs Nineteen
as well. Peter and I met, and it became
clear that there might be an opportunity.
PJ: From the early meetings with had
with Kevin’s team it was very apparent
that it was a different type of private
equity house in terms of its support.
NM: What are some signs of an
attractive investment in the exhibition
industry?
KK: First and most importantly is
the people that we’re working with and
obviously that’s a two-way street. From
our point of view, finding a team who’ve
built a business successfully in the past
is important. I think one of the things
they have that’s unusual is the proven
ability to successfully launch events as
well as build then. That is not an easy
skill to develop, nor is it one that is
prevalent in the sector. Lastly, having a
real focus in terms of sector and strong
positions within interesting sectors.
NM: How has the private equity view
of the exhibition industry changed since
your investment in CloserStill in 2012?
KK: It’s much more popular! There
have been a lot of private equity
transactions since 2012, here and
internationally. People are aware of
the very strong characteristics of
good exhibitions businesses. First and
foremost, from our point of view, is
the ability to grow if you have the right
team, whether it’s growing existing
events, launching events, acquiring
individual shows or groups of events
and internationalising – there are lots of
ways that businesses can grow.
NM: Will private equity investment in
the industry continue or has it peaked?
PS: I appreciate Informa/UBM wasn’t
private equity, but the total value [of
industry deals in the last 18 months] was
£7.3bn, if you include the NEC, Informa
and Clarion. It’s a phenomenal number,
but it’s always foolish to say things can’t
go up. However, in 2018 the big sellers
were all quite predictable, but if you say
to me who’s next…I’m not sure where
the big players are. It’s hard to see where
the assets are.
NM: What do you attribute the
popularity of the industry to?
PS: Trade shows are an interesting
sector to invest in. As areas to invest
go it’s proven a good area to place your
bets. It doesn’t require an enormous
amount of cash to try things – some
work and some don’t but the odds are
quite good. And, of course, Kevin is a
well-known star investor in all sorts of
products.
NM: It’s a safe bet?
PS: The trade show industry by and
large isn’t run particularly well and
that’s due to a lack of the Darwinian
effect – the margins are so good that
people don’t need to improve. That’s
the key to the success of the exhibition
industry worldwide.
NM: And where does the UK industry
sit within the global industry?
PS: The UK is a provincial market
– it’s of no great consequence in the
totality of things – but we have this
strange effect that so many of the large
world groups are based in the UK.
Virtually all the big organiser groups are
based in the UK, with Emerald as the
obvious exception. If you also exclude
the Messe’s and Comexposium the rest
are UK-based, and that is worthy of
debate. EN
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