Informa has agreed to acquire Clarion Events, the organiser of ICE and iGB L!VE, from Blackstone at an enterprise value of £2.24 billion (US$2.96 billion). The price is 11.1 times Clarion’s expected 2027 EBITDA, and Informa expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The deal moves ICE, Clarion’s largest gaming event, into the portfolio of the London-listed events and data group. Clarion’s WorldGaming division, which runs ICE and iGB L!VE, transfers together with Clarion brands serving the defence and electronics sectors.
Informa has been adding events businesses through acquisitions. In 2024 it bought Ascential, the owner of the Cannes Lions advertising festival, for £1.2 billion. At £2.24 billion, Clarion is the larger of the two deals by enterprise value, close to double the Ascential price.
How Informa is paying
Informa will fund the purchase with cash, dedicated acquisition financing, an equity placing and a retail offer. The placing and retail offer come to £940 million (US$1.24 billion).
Clarion is expected to generate £575 million (US$759.4 million) in revenue in 2027. With Clarion included, Informa’s B2B Live Events division would have pro forma revenue of £4.2 billion (US$5.55 billion). Informa expects the combined group to produce more than US$6 billion in annual revenue and underlying revenue growth of 7%.
Savings targets
Informa has set a target of £50 million (US$66 million) in annual operating savings from the combination. It also expects the deal to add £25 million (US$33 million) of annual operating profit by 2029. The announcement did not say which parts of the two businesses the savings will come from, or whether they include job cuts.
Blackstone’s exit after nine years
Blackstone bought Clarion from Providence Equity Partners in 2017 for around £600 million. In May 2025, Reuters reported that Blackstone had started a sale process that could value Clarion at about £2 billion. The agreed enterprise value is £240 million above that estimate.
Clarion had a difficult stretch under Blackstone. ICE was postponed twice in 2021 and then cancelled, and the group’s revenue and earnings stalled in 2020 and 2021. Revenue recovered to £432.9 million in the 12 months to January 2024, helped by the reopening of trade show markets in China and Hong Kong. Informa’s 2027 forecast of £575 million would put Clarion about a third above that level.
Clarion moved ICE from London to Barcelona in 2025. The show is now held at the Fira Gran Via venue. iGB L!VE and Clarion’s gaming media brands sit in the same WorldGaming division.
Leadership after completion
Lisa Hannant, Clarion’s chief executive, will stay in her role and join Informa’s executive leadership team. Informa chief executive Stephen Carter said Clarion would add further growth to Informa’s existing events portfolio.
Alex Pratt, managing director of Clarion WorldGaming, said the gaming team would benefit from Informa’s scale:
“Informa’s data, digital capability and international reach are exactly what our live and digital ecosystem needs to go further, faster.”
The announcement did not set out any changes to ICE, iGB L!VE or their dates.
What happens next
Completion is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, which would place the change of ownership shortly before the next ICE Barcelona, the first edition Informa would run as owner. For exhibitors and sponsors, the questions are commercial: stand pricing, sponsorship packages and whether Informa folds ICE’s data and digital products into its own B2B services.
For Informa, the test is whether Clarion reaches £575 million in revenue in 2027 and whether the £50 million savings target holds. Both numbers will be tracked in Informa’s results from 2027, the first full year with Clarion inside the group.
Source: Informa
