Acquisitions & Portfolio Expansion
Informa agrees to acquire Clarion Events for $2.96 billion Blackstone is selling Clarion, owner of IFA Berlin, DSEI and ICE Barcelona, to Informa for £2.24bn, the largest deal between organisers since Informa bought UBM in 2018. It follows Hyve, CloserStill and Emerald changing hands this year, and Informa also plans to separate Taylor & Francis to focus on B2B. With completion due by the end of 2026, the question is what a much larger Informa will mean for Clarion’s shows, teams and suppliers.
Feria Valencia unites four fairs in one design event València Inspira Diseño brought Feria Hábitat, Textilhogar, Espacio Cocina SICI and the new 360 by Cevisama together and drew 54,388 professional visits, an estimated 21% more than in 2024. The more telling number is who came: decorators and interior designers made up 22.6% of visits and furniture retailers 17.9%, a sign the joint format is drawing the specifiers who shape projects as much as the shops that stock them.
Jaarbeurs acquires ExpoProof to grow in public-sector events ExpoProof’s founders have sold their public-sector fairs, including Vakbeurs Openbare Ruimte and Vakbeurs Mobiliteit, to Jaarbeurs. The shows keep their own identity and familiar faces stay on, which matters in a niche built on long relationships with government buyers. For Jaarbeurs, it opens a direct line to professionals working on climate adaptation, mobility and urban development.
Leadership & Executive Appointments
Rodolfo Andrade named CEO of GL events Brasil A GL events insider since 2013, Andrade built his career on venue concessions and public-private partnerships, including Distrito Anhembi in São Paulo and the Centro de Convenções Salvador. His appointment came with a wider reshuffle in the group’s 20th year in Brazil, and putting a venue specialist in charge suggests where the next phase of growth is expected. Group president Olivier Ginon calls him “the ideal person” for this new stage.
CloserStill Media appoints Nicola Hamann as Managing Director, Europe Hamann joins from Messe München and previously held managing director roles at RX Global and Mack Brooks. She now runs Learning & HR and Future Transport & Infrastructure across Europe, months after Searchlight and Providence took joint control of CloserStill. Hiring from the German trade fair world for a London-based role suggests CloserStill sees continental Europe as a key source of growth in its five-year plan.
Messe Frankfurt adds two members to its Executive Board Dr Christine von Schildt, who led corporate real estate for Bayer across EMEA, joined on 1 August to oversee operations, digital transformation and the Frankfurt site. Heiko M. Stutzinger, CEO of Hamburg Messe und Congress and a former COO of Jaarbeurs, takes over brands and international business in January 2027, succeeding Detlef Braun. Between them, they cover the two halves of the business: the venue and the shows.
Strategic Partnerships & New Event Launches
Messe Düsseldorf plans its first trade show in Morocco Morocco Food World will open in Casablanca in the second half of 2027, run with FENAGRI, Morocco’s national food industry federation. It takes Messe Düsseldorf’s interpack network to the Atlantic coast, on the expectation that investment in local food production will drive demand for processing and packaging technology. CEO Wolfram N. Diener sees Morocco, close to Europe, as a gateway to West African markets.
RX Africa and Messe Muenchen India join forces in Johannesburg In July 2027, analytica Lab Africa and IFAT Africa will run alongside RX Africa’s Africa Automation Technology Fair at Gallagher Convention Centre, putting lab, water, environmental and automation technology in one place. Messe München CEO Stefan Rummel calls Africa “an important growth market”.
dmg events and VEC plan four international events in Vietnam From 2027, the partners plan international shows in energy, industry, healthcare and education, starting with the Global Energy Exhibition & Congress in Hanoi in February. dmg, which runs Gastech, is arriving as Vietnam needs an estimated US$136.3bn of investment in power generation and grids by 2030 under its revised power plan. The government has welcomed the plan and pledged its support.
