M&A| Exhibition World12| February 2011| THE MAGAZINE FOR THE GLOBAL EXHIBITION COMMUNITY WWW.EXHIBITION-WORLD.NETThe year 2010 finished with a number of interestingacquisitions and for once, none of them involvedUBM.The big news was the purchase of MVK by ITE for ?33m(£27.67m), making ITE the biggest organiser in Russia. Theportfolio of shows taking place in Moscow includesfurniture, packaging, pumps and measurement, printingand woodworking and takes ITE into a number of newsectors, which presumably, it can now replicate into itsother core geographic markets. Reed Exhibitions bought a majority stake in the China GolfShow, one of the biggest golf shows in mainland China. It'sa relatively small show - around 300 exhibitors - andcomplements the PGA Merchandise Show organised inpartnership by Reed and the PGA. It is interesting that thisis the second acquisition by Reed in the last couple ofmonths and both have been small strategic add-ons. Whenthe economic crisis hit, Reed stopped making acquisitions,unlike a number of other organisers who continued to makesmall strategic purchases. It will be interesting to see if thisrenewed interest continues. Meanwhile in the UK, Clarion Events acquired networktelecommunications event organiser Avren Events. In 2011Avren will organise about 10 strategic telecoms confexes inthe UK, Singapore and the US. Clarion has been quietlydeveloping its conference business in cards andpayments, gaming, energy and media and the acquisitionof Avren means that Clarion will now add telecoms as a fifthmain sector with more than 20 events worldwide.A couple of months ago, I mentioned in this column thatAfrica would be one of themarkets to watch for futurebusiness development. It seems thatSandy and Damion Angus of Montgomery Worldwideshared my views and have now decided to make it easierfor other international organisers who want to launch theirbrands there. Montgomery Africa (Pty) Ltd, based in Johannesburg, isspecifically designed to work with international companieswith established brands which they want to launch intoSouth Africa and, in some cases, the wider African market.It is often both daunting and uneconomic for organisers tolaunch one or two brands into a new market andMontgomery's infrastructure and expertise should allowless experienced organisers to take the plunge. Finally, what can we expect in 2011 on the M&A front? Itis clear we will continue to see investment in markets suchas Brazil and Turkey and this will also mean a number ofnew organisers entering these geographies. We shouldalso see the start of acquisition activity in Mexico, otherparts of Latin America and Africa. Multiples are starting to increase and I believe we will seethe return of some larger deals - 2010 was notable forproducing only one sizeable acquisition when UBM boughtCanon Communications. And of course there are alwaysthe continuing rumours about Reed to keep us ready for themega deal. Steve MonningtonDealmakersMayfield Media's Steve Monningtonon the latest internationalmergers and acquisitions activity.