Informa to buy Clarion from Blackstone for £2.24bn and separate Taylor & Francis

Informa said on 6 October 2026 that it will buy Clarion, a UK-based organiser of business-to-business (B2B) events, from Blackstone for an enterprise value of £2.24bn ($2.97bn). The London-listed group has also launched a separation process for its academic publisher, Taylor & Francis.

Clarion owns more than 100 B2B brands. Among them are IFA Berlin, the defence show DSEI and ICE in Barcelona, which Informa calls a global leader in gaming. Clarion's other gaming brand is IGB.

The price will be paid in cash. The buyer said it will fund it with dedicated acquisition financing and the net proceeds of a share placing of about £940m ($1.25bn), equal to about 9% of its issued ordinary share capital. The placing is an accelerated bookbuild for institutions, plus a separate retail offer through the RetailBook platform.

Terms

• Price: enterprise value of £2.24bn, including some tax benefits. Informa puts this at 11.1 times expected 2027 EBITDAEBITDA and adjusted EBITDAEBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, a rough measure of the profit a business makes from its operations. "Adjusted" EBITDA also leaves out further items the company chooses to exclude.Full entry in the glossary, or about 9 times including £50m a year of cost synergies.
• Clarion's outlook: 2027 revenue of at least £575m and adjusted operating profit margins of at least 30%, excluding share of joint-venture income, according to the buyer.
• Synergies: £50m a year of operating synergies identified so far, plus a target of £25m a year in additional operating profit from revenue synergies by 2029. One-off costs are put at £50m.
• Buyback: the current share buyback will be paused to redirect capital to the deal.
• Net debt: pro-forma net debt is expected to stay below 3 times EBITDA at the end of 2026 and fall below 2.5 times by the end of 2027.
• Completion: expected towards the end of Q4 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
• Management: Clarion's chief executive, Lisa Hannant, will stay in her role and join the buyer's Executive Leadership Team. Clarion's CEO will roll over a proportion of Clarion equity into Informa equity when the deal completes, the buyer said.

Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis has revenues approaching $1bn, growing at about 4%, the company said. It is reviewing all options for the business and says it will report the outcome with its 2026 full-year results in March 2027.

Why it matters

Clarion would lift Informa's B2B Live Events revenue to more than £4.2bn ($5.7bn), from more than £3bn today, according to the company. It says the combined events business would grow by at least 7% a year on an underlying basis, against its current commitment of at least 6%.

The group also expects a mid-single-digit enhancement to adjusted diluted earnings per share in 2027.

What to watch

• Completion of the acquisition, which the company expects towards the end of Q4 2026.
• The outcome of the Taylor & Francis review, due with the 2026 full-year results in March 2027.