Northstar Travel Group enters into an agreement to acquire Centaur Media’s Travel & Meetings Shows
Northstar Travel Group enters into an agreement to acquire Centaur Media’s Travel & Meetings Shows
London, UK (April 10, 2019) – Northstar Travel Group today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Centaur Media Travel and Meetings Limited (“CTM”), the owner of well-known exhibitions and events serving the travel industry including the Business Travel Show, The Meetings Show and Travel Technology Europe, from Centaur Media PLC. The transaction is expected to close at the end of April.
“The addition of Centaur’s Travel & Meetings exhibitions to our global portfolio of 80 events in 13 countries fits perfectly with our strategy to expand our event segment with the UK’s leading portfolio of travel shows,” said Thomas Kemp, Chairman & CEO of Northstar Travel Group. “The acquisition also provides Northstar with a platform in London to expand our portfolio of travel information and marketing services properties in the UK and Europe,” said Kemp. “We are excited to add Dave Chapple and his team of travel event professionals to the Northstar team,” added Kemp.
The CTM portfolio includes the following brands:
• The Business Travel Show: Europe’s largest corporate travel event with more than 9,000 attendees including 220 exhibiting companies and 500 hosted corporate travel buyers produced for 25 years in London.
• The Meetings Show: The UK’s leading in-bound and out-bound event for global meeting planners bringing corporate and association events to the UK, or UK -based corporate and association planners looking to take events to Europe and globally. The event brings together approximately 5,000 attendees including 640 exhibitors and approximately 1,000 hosted meeting buyers with 10,000 appointments.
• Travel Technology Europe: For 17 years, Travel Technology Europe has been bringing together buyers of technology solutions for the travel industry with innovative companies selling software and services to the travel industry. Approximately 6,500 attendees including 300 VIP travel technology buyers participate in Travel Technology Europe each year.
Northstar Travel Group is the world’s leading information and marketing services company serving the corporate travel industry with the BTN Group including Business Travel News, Travel Procurement and The Beat; the global meetings and incentive industry with Northstar Meetings Group including Successful Meetings, Meetings & Convention, Meetings News, and Incentive; and the travel technology industry through Phocuswright, the leading business intelligence, market research and event business serving on-line travel distribution and travel technology solutions.
“The CTM portfolio is a perfect strategic fit with Northstar’s core information and marketing services brands serving these B2B travel segments,” said Bob Sullivan, president of Northstar’s Travel Group. “We will be able to leverage our content, our databases and our industry relationships to expand and grow these events.”
The entire CTM team is expected to join Northstar at the close. “We are thrilled with the combination of the Travel & Meetings business with Northstar Travel Group,” said David Chapple, Group Event Director of CTM. “Northstar is the perfect strategic partner for our portfolio of exhibitions with the leading global brands in each of our travel markets,” added Chapple.
About Northstar Travel Group
Northstar Travel Group is the leading B-to-B information and marketing solutions company serving all segments of the travel industry including leisure/retail, corporate/business travel, business and sports meetings, incentives, hospitality, and travel technology.
Northstar is the owner of well-known brands including Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Travel Weekly China, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings & Conventions, Incentive, M&C China, Travel42, Axus Travel App, and Web in Travel. The company produces more than 80 face-to-face events in 13 countries in retail travel, hospitality, corporate travel, travel technology, sports travel, and the meetings & incentive industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research, business intelligence, and event producer serving the travel technology industry.
Northstar Travel Group owns the Burba Hotel Network, the leading producer of hotel investment events globally, including ALIS, the largest hotel investment conference in the world produced with the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Los Angeles each year.
Northstar is also the majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software, CRM database marketing and predictive analytics business serving the mountain destination, golf, activities, hospitality, and specialty destination travel markets.
Based in Secaucus, NJ, the company has offices in New York, NY; Stowe, VT; Denver, CO; Edwards, CO; Burlington, VT; Los Angeles, CA; Costa Mesa, CA; Lombard, IL; and global offices in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai. And soon to be London.
Northstar Travel Group is owned by funds managed by EagleTree Capital.
About EagleTree Capital
EagleTree Capital, formerly Wasserstein Partners, is a New York based private equity and investment firm. It manages capital on behalf of global institutional and individual investors. EagleTree’s private equity funds invest primarily in the media and business services, consumer products, and water and industrial sectors. For more information, visit www.eagletree.com.
About Centaur Media, PLC
Centaur, a London-based public company, is an international provider of business information and specialist consultancy that inspires and enables people to excel at what they do, raising the standard for insight, interaction and impact.
Leading brands include: Econsultancy, Marketing Week, Festival of Marketing, MarketMakers, Creative Review, Influencer Intelligence, Fashion & Beauty Monitor, The Lawyer, Employee Benefits, The Engineer, Subcon and Oystercatchers.