What does 2018 hold for us?

Happy New Year!

What does 2018 hold for us?

Well let’s try to reflect 2017 in news ticker style before we try to make a prediction for this year that has just started:

『 major investment of 485m usd from UBM into Allworld in January 2017 』『 Emerald Expositions got listed in the USA in May 2017 』『 Messe Munich announced major deal in China for Fenestration in May 2017 』『 Blackstone surprised the world with the Akquisition of GlobalSources in June 2017』『 Blackstone acquired Clarion for a record amount from providence also by June 2017』 『 TCEB changed the president and it’s Organisation by Q2/Q3 2017 』『 Informa; Tarsus and Comexposium and easyfairs acquired throughout the year assets in Asia; Europe and America amounting to more then 100 million combined transaction deals 』『 Messe Frankfurt announces major transactions in November 2017 for AMR China and fitness India value unknown but estimated at 30m USD 』『 Ufi celebrated the first successful congress in Africa and launch of venue management class in China 』

By December 80% of all stock listed exhibition companies gained more then 20% on the stock market and had a very successful financial year.

Now 2018 is just a few days old what could the new year bring for us?

I can only predict a few stock listed companies especially on FTSE but also in other parts of the world will be delisted and the financial gamble is going to continue. As exhibition business globally provides excellent growth and ROI opportunities the appetite from financial institutions and private equity firms will continue to rise. We will see a further consolidation of smaller and medium sized stock listed or private or PE held exhibition organisers - properly even mergers with different assets and the TOP 5 of the industry are going to be far away from the rest. The gap between Top 5 and the other organisers especially German Messes etc will widen. Government organisers will be under tremendous pressure from the M&A market as financial firms and stock listed companies will continue to “vacuum” the market for whatever is available. I do not foresee any listing like Emerald last year and I would also be cautious with the stock price of exhibition organisers because they had an excellent performance in 2018. Only M&A candidates may perform very well this year upon announcement of mergers or sell ons.

What do we expect in Asia?

Chinese organisers and financial firms are very eager to get of out of China and to start to play with the “big boys” globally. I doubt their quick success as global financial firms and organisers made all their home-works and are in better position for overseas expansions compared with the Chinese organisers. However also in Asia I do see a consolidation. Smaller private held organisers especially from Hong Kong and Singapore as well as family businesses from China, Thailand and Indonesia will continue to be the focus of takeovers and continue to disappear from the market. We will see more show launches in Indonesia and Thailand as these 2 destinations are eager to take the lead for the ASEAN market. Overall a vibrant market with many surprises to be seen will be coming from China and ASEAN and big organisers should be prepared to ride the wave here.

Expos Asia will continue to blog about the latest developments and also supports your expansion and M&A strategies in the region. In 2017 we are very proud that we supported through consulting deal values of more then 1bn USD and succeeded for 3 transactions in the market. In addition through Expos Asia 3 new shows were launched in the ASEAN market and Expos Asia succeeded to become the advisor of TCEB, SACEOS and other exhibition associations or government bodies to boost the exhibition industry in Asia.

We wish all our clients and the entire MICE industry a very fruitful and successful New Year!