The trade-show operator goes for 11.1 times its expected 2027 earnings before synergies. Informa placed about £940 million of stock, paused its buyback and will keep Clarion's chief executive as an investor.
Blackstone has found a buyer for Clarion Events, the exhibitions business it has owned since 2017. The buyer is paying in part with money it raised from public shareholders the same day.
Informa, the London-listed events and publishing group, agreed to buy Clarion at an enterprise value of £2.24 billion, a figure it said includes some tax benefits. The deal was signed on and is expected to complete toward the end of the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
The price
Informa said the price equals 11.1 times Clarion's expected 2027 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. That implies about £202 million of 2027 Ebitda. Including about £50 million of expected cost savings, the multiple falls to about 9 times. Adding roughly £25 million of profit from expected revenue gains brings it to about 8 times.
The cost savings alone equal about a quarter of Clarion's implied 2027 earnings, which makes them central to the buyer's case.
The funding
Informa is paying cash, funded by committed acquisition financing and a placing of about £940 million of new shares, roughly 9% of its share capital, sold to institutional and retail investors. The placing equals about 42% of the enterprise value. Informa paused its share buyback and said it expects leverage below 3 times at the end of 2026 and below 2.5 times a year later.
Clarion's chief executive will roll part of his equity into Informa shares. The deal comes as Informa also moves to separate its academic publishing arm.
What the seller gets
The £2.24 billion is the business's enterprise value, not Blackstone's proceeds. Clarion's net debt, the equity value and Blackstone's return on its nine-year holding were not disclosed. In dollar terms, the price is roughly $3 billion.
The exit route
For the seller, a full sale to a listed strategic buyer delivers cash in a single transaction, rather than through a partial sale or a continuation fund in which the sponsor keeps a stake.
Two views
One reading is that a strategic buyer willing to raise equity to pay 11 times forward earnings shows there is demand for sponsor-owned assets at prices that work for both sides, which supports the case that exits are reopening.
Another reading is that the buyer needed about £50 million of cost savings to bring the multiple down to 9 times, and that the funding structure, with a paused buyback and new shares, shifts part of the cost of the exit onto Informa's existing shareholders.
The next filings
Completion and the regulatory approvals are the milestones for the sale. Disclosure of the debt facility and of Clarion's net debt would show how much equity value Blackstone realized. Informa's progress on the synergy target in its 2027 results will show whether the 9 times figure was reached.