Charterhouse to acquire Tarsus in £561m deal

B2B organiser and publisher Tarsus Group is set to be acquired by private equity firm Charterhouse, which completed a sale of Comexposium in March 2019, for approximately £561m. The terms of the acquisition imply an enterprise value of £668m and a multiple of approximately 17 times average EBITDA for Tarsus’s financial years ended 31 December 2017 and 31 December 2018. Tarsus operates globally in the United States and the Americas, China, South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Turkey and Europe, in verticals including aviation, medical, labels and packaging, travel, housewares and automotive. It runs more than 160 events with a number of flagship brands including Labelexpo, Connect and the Dubai Airshow. Neville Buch, Tarsus chairman, commented: “I am delighted to announce that the Independent Tarsus Directors have reached agreement with Charterhouse on the acquisition. We believe that the acquisition provides significant value for Tarsus’s shareholders, whilst ensuring that Tarsus can continue its journey as a leading exhibitions business with an owner that can provide the capital and industry experience to support Tarsus’s future growth. We believe that the acquisition is in the interests of Tarsus’s shareholders, employees and customers and we look forward to seeing Tarsus continue to grow going forward.” Robert Leeming, partner at Charterhouse, added: “We are delighted to invest in Tarsus Group and to support Doug [Emslie, group managing director] and the management team in continuing the impressive growth they have achieved over the past years. They have built a wonderful business with leading exhibitions in growth sectors across the globe. We are committed to growing the business further, and supporting it with additional capital and expertise to accelerate its growth trajectory in the future.”