The trade show mergers and acquisitions market shows no sign of slowing down any time soon, with two more buys recently taking place; Emerald Expositions bought ST Media Group International and Hospitality Media Group’s portfolio of shows that includes BDNY (Boutique Design New York) and Access Intelligence scooped up P3C Media’s event portfolio.

Now in its ninth year, BDNY is a leading trade show and conference for boutique hospitality design professionals, primarily serving the eastern United States, Canada and Europe.

BDNY was ranked No. 145 on the 2017 TSNN Top Trade Show list and also has been one of the fastest-growing shows in the U.S. for several years.

In addition to BDNY, Emerald is acquiring the BDwest and HX: The Hotel Experience trade shows, the Hospitality Match, Senior Lifestyle Design Match and Forum Series events, and Boutique Design, the partner magazine to BDNY.

Members of the ST Media and HMG teams will join Emerald, including Michelle Finn, formerly president of HMG and Senior Vice President of ST Media. Finn will report to Joe Randall, executive vice president of Emerald Expositions, as vice president of Boutique Design.

Randall said, “We are delighted to add BDNY and related products to our existing portfolio of leading hospitality brands, which includes Hospitality Design, Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, Healthcare Design, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Environments for Aging and HotelPoint.”

He added, “We have tracked the emergence of the BDNY brand and have been extremely impressed by its quality and growth under Michelle’s leadership, and the unique value proposition that she and her team have created.”

David Loechner, Emerald’s president and CEO, said, “With the purchase of this highly attractive and complementary set of brands, our acquisitions spend so far in 2018 has exceeded $70 million, which is consistent with the range of our annual investment levels over the last few years. We remain committed to our successful strategy of deploying Emerald’s strong cash flows on attractive assets that diversify and strengthen our portfolio while also helping to accelerate our growth. Looking forward, the B2B trade show market remains highly fragmented with numerous acquisition candidates that fit our stringent criteria, and we will continue to leverage our leading market position as we execute our strategy of growing our portfolio through accretive acquisitions.”

“Emerald is the natural and logical home for BDNY and the other assets that we are selling,” said Tedd Swormstedt, ST Media’s President. “I am confident that the resources, scale, industry knowledge and strong team at Emerald will help secure their future growth and continued relevance in the hospitality market.”

Hilliard Lyons Investment Banking, a division of J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons, LLC, a comprehensive wealth management firm, was the exclusive financial advisor to the sellers in this transaction. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Access Intelligence also recently bought P3C Media, owner of The Public-Private Partnership (P3) Conference and Expo, the leading education and networking event for P3 leaders from government and industry to discuss infrastructure challenges and innovations in project delivery, procurement, life cycle asset management and solutions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2012 by P3C Media President Eric Iravani, the company’s premier events attract senior representatives from government, higher education institutions, and leading firms in the global construction and financial markets.

P3C Media has several vertical events that surround their flagship Public-Private Partnership Conference, including: The P3 Water Summit, The P3 Airport Summit, The P3 Higher Education Summit and The P3 Federal Conference.

"The U.S. is on track to become the largest public-private partnership market in the world. Behind the development is supportive public policy, authorizing legislation, and a backlog of essential infrastructure projects in need of new delivery methods," Iravani said. "Through Access Intelligence’s commitment to P3C, we look forward to working with the entire AI team and growing P3C’s role in the industry, creating the highest quality portfolio of networking and educational opportunities for professionals dedicated to the growing P3 market. This is an exciting time for public-private partnerships and our portfolio will benefit significantly from AI’s scale, resources, and event expertise. We will be able to expand our major information platform to address the growth of public-private partnerships in complimentary verticals."

Iravani will continue in his role as P3C Media’s founder with Access Intelligence.

“P3C Media has been at the forefront of the burgeoning private-public partnership space for many years and has firmly established itself as the market leader for bringing together top government, industry and financial leaders across several verticals in the P3 marketplace,” said Don Pazour, CEO of Access Intelligence. “We are delighted to add the P3C Media brand to our company’s portfolio, to welcome an extremely talented team into our family, and to fast-track our leadership position in the P3 marketplace.”

P3C Media will become part of Access Intelligence’s Energy & Engineering division run by Jennifer Schwartz, senior vice president and group publisher, whose other brands include POWER, ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition, Defense Daily, Chemical Engineering, Global Connected Aircraft Summit, Connected Plant Conference, The LDC Forums and OR Manager.  

Upcoming P3C Media events include The P3 Federal Conference Nov. 27-28 in Washington, DC and The Public-Private Conference & Expo, March 4-6 in Dallas, TX. The Public-Private Partnership Conference & Expo is one of the largest gatherings of government and construction professionals in the United States.

P3C Media was represented by Corporate Solutions of Westport, Conn., on the investment banking side and legal services by Benesch. Access Intelligence was represented by Graydon for legal services.