TURKEY – FTSE 250 organiser of conferences and exhibitions, ITE Group has bought control of Turkish YEM Fuarcilik for a reported £16.3m ($26m).
The purchase price for 60 per cent of the business initially includes an upfront cash payment of £13.1m, plus up to £3.2m payable nine months after completion and based on YEMF achieving performance targets. YEMF is owner of TurkeyBuild, an annual construction event held in Istanbul every April/May. City analysts expect the Turkish construction market to grow 50 per cent of the next five years and the ITE move follows rival exhibitions group Tarsus buying into a Turkish business a couple of months ago.
“TurkeyBuild Istanbul is the market-leading building and construction exhibition in Turkey,” ITE chief executive Russell Taylor said in a statement. He added that YEMF’s events were market leaders in Turkey but could benefit from access to ITE’sinternational customer base and construction events in Russia and CIS.”
ITE’s main markets are in Russia and the former CIS states, with the giant MosBuild part of its portfolio supplying up to a fifth of group profits.
News agency The Times reports (14 July) that ITE is keen to diversify out of the former Soviet Union, however, and that the group is looking at South-East Asia.
ITE also recently moved to strengthen its Kazakh oil and gas events portfolio following an agreement on collaboration between Kazakhstan’s two leading oil and gas trade events with the Kazenergy Association.
Iteca (part of the ITE Group), organiser of the KIOGE exhibition and conference, is to organise the Kazenergy Eurasian Forum in October 2011 in the capital Astana.
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