Hyve $83.7m share placing funds two big US acquisitions

Global events business Hyve plc has acquired US major events Shoptalk and Groceryshop for US$145m. They become the No.1 and No.9 events in the organiser’s portfolio respectively, with 2019 expected revenue of $35.8m and EBITDA of $12.2m. The two market leading US events were created by the founders of Money2020 who will oversee integration by joining Hyve and share best practice hosted buying technology. The acquisition builds scale of Hyve’s global brands division and continues the direction of managing the portfolio towards market leading events. The acquisition is funded through drawdown under refinanced debt facilities and a shares placing. 59,584,541 new ordinary shares were placed at 88p per share with existing and new investors. In addition, 14,577,259 new ordinary shares have been subscribed for through the subscription by the founders, Anil D. Aggarwal and Simran Rekhi Aggarwal and other management shareholders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop. Together, the placing and subscription of 74,161,800 new ordinary shares has raised £63.9m (US83.7m).