The acquisition of Tarsus Group was announced this morning (9 March) alongside Informa’s year-end results. 

Tarsus owns a “highly complementary” portfolio of more than 160 worldwide events, including Labelexpo. Informa is acquiring the business in a $940m (£791m) deal. 

Informa is acquiring the business from private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, which bought Tarsus in May 2019 for $708m. 

Like other international events businesses, Tarsus was severely impacted by pandemic-related travel restrictions. 

The Labelexpo Europe show that would have been held in autumn 2021 was postponed until spring 2022, and then had to be cancelled after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the European labels industry caused by last year’s long-running strike at UPM. 

The show will now return to its familiar home at the Brussels Expo halls from 11-14 September 2023.

Labelexpo Asia 2022 also had to be postponed due to the protracted lockdowns in China. It is now slated for December 2023. 

The Tarsus B2B events portfolio also includes beauty and aesthetics, healthcare, infrastructure and aviation.

Announcing the buy, Informa stated: “Like Informa, Tarsus is seeing a similar strong return to the market for Live and On-Demand B2B Events in 2023.”

The deal is expected to complete by 1 July. 

Informa posted sales of just under £2.4bn last year.