Law firm CMS is acting for main market listed ITE Group (ITE) on its proposed GBP300 million acquisition of Ascential’s Exhibitions Business.
The consideration for the acquisition (including estimated costs) is intended to be funded through a GBP315 million rights issue, which has been fully underwritten on a standby basis by Investec Bank plc. ITE is also seeking to increase its debt facilities by GBP50 million with a view to reducing the amount required to be raised by the rights issue to GBP265 million. It is expected that the rights issue will also be underwritten by Numis Securities Limited in due course.
The transaction constitutes a class 1 transaction for both ITE and Ascential under the Listing Rules and therefore requires shareholder approval. The transaction is expected to complete in July 2018.
The Ascential Exhibitions Business, which organises market-leading exhibitions that bring business communities together to connect and trade, includes two global industry-leading exhibitions brands, Bett and CWIEME, and a number of market-leading UK exhibitions brands such as the Spring and Autumn Fairs and Pure. The acquisition will diversify ITE’s exposure to some end-market verticals such as education technology and coil winding, electric motor and transformer manufacturing technologies that ITE sees as attractive and supported by structural growth drivers, creating a more balanced portfolio of events in the enlarged ITE business.
Andrew Watkins, General Counsel at ITE, says: “This is a transformational deal for ITE, expanding and diversifying our portfolio and adding seven market-leading exhibitions brands to our business, completed against a tight timetable. It was a pleasure to be working with the CMS team led by Alasdair and David, drawing on CMS historic knowledge of our business as well as its specialist ECM, US securities, Chinese, Brazilian and Turkish capabilities.”
