GCP Capital Partners has acquired World Trade Group (“WTG”), a leading international provider of business-to-business events, specialist training courses, online lead generation services and business conferences to an international client base. WTG, which was privately owned by Victor Lewis and Andrew Brown, has been sold to the private equity operator in a £27.5m buyout led by the incumbent CEO, Andrew Brown and his senior team. The price paid represents a multiple of over 8 times operating profits.
WTG, which currently employs some 250 staff, was founded by Victor Lewis and Andrew Brown in 1997 and runs a broad portfolio of large scale business summits in Europe, North America and Asia. The Company is focused on events in global growth sectors such as energy and pharmaceuticals and was recently featured in the Sunday Times International Track 100 as one of the UK’s fastest growing international companies.