Informa has agreed to buy Clarion Events from Blackstone for £2.24 billion ($2.97 billion), a deal that brings ICE Barcelona, iGB L!VE and the rest of Clarion’s World Gaming portfolio into one of the largest B2B events groups in the world.
The London-listed group announced the acquisition on 6 October. It expects to complete by the end of Q4 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Deal terms
The price is 11.1 times Clarion’s expected 2027 EBITDA. Informa forecasts Clarion will generate £575 million in revenue in 2027, with operating margins above 30%.
Informa is funding the purchase with committed acquisition debt and around £940 million of new equity, raised through a share placing and a retail offer. Its share buyback programme is paused while the deal goes through.
The group has identified £50 million of annual cost savings and is targeting a further £25 million of operating profit by 2029. Once combined, the business will have around £4.2 billion of annual revenue across roughly 1,000 specialist brands.
What Informa is buying
Clarion runs more than 100 B2B events. Outside gaming, the list includes IFA in Berlin, the DSEI defence exhibition, the Distributech utilities show and the ITC Vegas insurance conference. It was the third-largest exhibition organiser by 2025 revenue and the largest in private hands, according to Trade Show Executive.
Blackstone bought Clarion from Providence Equity Partners in 2017, so the sale ends a holding period of about nine years. Lionel Assant, Blackstone’s global co-chief investment officer, described Informa as the right owner for Clarion’s next stage.
Lisa Hannant stays on as Clarion CEO and joins Informa’s executive leadership team.
“This marks an important new chapter for our business,” said Lisa Hannant, CEO of Clarion Events.
Informa CEO Stephen A. Carter said the deal expands the group’s international B2B live events business, with added reach in North America, Asia and Europe.
The gaming portfolio
World Gaming is Clarion’s gaming division. Its anchor show is ICE, which moved from London to Barcelona in 2025. The division also runs the iGaming Business (iGB) events, iGB L!VE and iGB Affiliate, which bring together operators, affiliates, suppliers and technology companies.
Clarion is headquartered in London, a city that still hosts a large share of the sector’s B2B companies and decision makers. Neither company has announced changes to the gaming events calendar or to the World Gaming management team.
Alex Pratt, managing director of World Gaming at Clarion, joined iGaming Business in 2004. He responded to the deal on LinkedIn.
“I joined iGaming Business in 2004. Seeing what we’ve built at WorldGaming recognised like this means a lot, and the credit goes to the team who did the work over the last 22 years,” said Alex Pratt, managing director of World Gaming at Clarion Events.
What happens next
Completion depends on regulatory clearance and on Informa closing its £940 million equity raise. If both land on schedule, Informa will own Clarion before the next ICE Barcelona, expected early in 2027.
The gaming events market Clarion operates in is competitive. Rival organiser SBC ran its flagship SBC Summit Lisbon in September, and exhibitors and sponsors split budgets across a crowded calendar of shows.
For those exhibitors, the questions now move to pricing, stand allocation and sponsorship packages under a new owner that has £50 million of savings to find across the combined group.
Source: Informa
