Informa to buy US rival Penton for £1.2bn

Informa, the business intelligence, events and academic publishing company, has agreed to buy US-based peer Penton Information Services for £1.2bn.

The proposed acquisition, part of the company's growth acceleration plan, will be funded by a fully-underwritten £715m rights issue and existing cash, which will strengthen its global exhibitions and business intelligence divisions and its presence in the US.

The shares will be sold at 441p each for every four existing Informa shares to raise £715m.

Penton's two owners, MidOcean Partners and Wasserstein & Co, will receive £1,105m in cash and £76m equity in Informa that they have agreed to hold for at least one year.

The addition of Penton adds 30 exhibitions to the FTSE 100 company's portfolio, increasing the number of US band to 16, the health, agriculture, infrastructure and transportation divisions.

Penton will also add over 20 digital subscription data and intelligence brands and portfolio of more than a hundred specialist digital and print products to its business intelligence division.

From the proposed acquisition the company expects net operating synergies of £14m in 2018 with additional potential revenue benefits through digital product capabilities, sponsorship, and customer cross marketing.

Chief executive Stephen Carter, said the deal "signals the next step in the growth acceleration plan", further improving the predictability and sustainability of our growth performance and cash generation and delivering attractive returns for shareholders.

Informa’s underlying full year expectations are unchanged and maintained the 4% minimum annual dividend growth.