Centaur Media Plc (“Centaur” or the “Group”), an international provider of business information and specialist consultancy, today announces that it has entered into a conditional agreement to sell Centaur Media Travel and Meetings Limited (CTM), the owner of the Business Travel Show and The Meetings Show, to Northstar Travel Media UK Limited (“Northstar”), a leading B2B information and marketing solutions company focused on the global travel and meetings industries. Completion of the disposal is expected to take place on 30 April 2019.
The disposal follows Centaur’s decision last October to explore the divestment of its smaller businesses in order to simplify the Group’s structure and to focus management resources on its leading brands. Centaur announced on 1 April 2019 that it has raised £5m from the sale of its financial services business, which includes brands such as Money Marketing and Mortgage Strategy.
Northstar will pay a cash consideration of £9.25m (subject to customary post-completion adjustments) for CTM, which formed part of the Group’s professional services division. Centaur will consider the best use for the sale proceeds following the completion of its divestment review.
Centaur’s professional services division comprises The Lawyer and a portfolio of market leading event brands across three sectors: travel and meetings, human resources and engineering.
Andria Vidler, Chief Executive of Centaur, commented: “Today’s announcement is another important milestone in Centaur’s ongoing transformation. As we focus on building more robust and stronger recurring revenues, we are reducing Group complexity and overheads that will allow us to deliver efficiencies and improve our operating margins.
“Our travel and meetings exhibitions have made a valuable contribution to Centaur over the years, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team for their commitment. I am pleased that the business is joining Northstar, who recognise its value and whose expertise and understanding of the travel sector will help it to realise its potential.
For the year ended 31 December 2018, Centaur’s travel and meetings exhibitions made normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation operating profit of £1.7m (before central overhead allocations), up from £1.6m in 2017, on revenues of £6.4m (2017: £6.1m). At 31 December 2018, the business had gross assets of £1.7m.
Centaur
Centaur is an international provider of business information and specialist consultancy that inspires and enables people to excel at what they do, raising the standard for insight, interaction and impact.
Leading brands include: Econsultancy, Marketing Week, Festival of Marketing, MarketMakers, Creative Review, Influencer Intelligence, Fashion & Beauty Monitor, The Lawyer, Employee Benefits, The Engineer, Subcon and Oystercatchers.
Northstar
Northstar Travel Group is the leading B-to-B information and marketing solutions company serving all segments of the travel industry including leisure/retail, corporate/business travel, business and sports meetings, incentives, and travel technology.
Northstar is the owner of well-known brands including Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Travel Weekly China, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings & Conventions, Incentive, M&C China, Travel42, Axus Travel App, and Web in Travel. The company produces more than 80 face-to-face events in 13 countries in retail travel, hospitality, corporate travel, travel technology, sports travel, and the meetings & incentive industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research, business intelligence, and event producer serving the travel technology industry.
Northstar Travel Group owns the Burba Hotel Network, the leading producer of hotel investment events globally, including ALIS, the largest hotel investment conference in the world produced with the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Los Angeles each year.
Northstar is also the majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software, CRM database marketing and predictive analytics business serving the mountain destination, golf, activities, hospitality, and specialty destination travel markets.
Based in Secaucus, NJ, the company has offices in New York, NY; Stowe, VT; Denver, CO; Edwards, CO; Burlington, VT; Los Angeles, CA; Costa Mesa, CA; Lombard, IL; and global offices in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai. And soon to be London.
Northstar Travel Group is owned by funds managed by EagleTree Capital.