Herbert Smith Freehills advises founders on US$485m sale of Allworld Exhibitions to UBM

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised the founders of Allworld Exhibitions on the sale of the business to UBM plc for US$485 million. 

Allworld is a leading international exhibitions business operating 51 tradeshows in 11 countries and across nine industry sectors including Food & Hospitality, Packaging, Manufacturing, TMT and Oil & Gas. 

With 70 offices across 20 countries globally, UBM is a FTSE250 global business-to-business event organising company headquartered in the UK. Its principal operations include live media and business-to-business communications, marketing services and data provision.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by corporate partners Gavin Williams and Alan Montgomery, supported by senior associates Marc Perkins and Jamie McLaren.

Gavin commented:

"Allworld is a much sought-after business. Its footprint across the Middle East and Asia matched perfectly with our own, which positioned us perfectly to act on this important multi-jurisdictional sale process."

Marc added:

"This transaction is another example of consolidation in the sector. Companies are actively seeking high-growth and high-margin businesses or those which present significant opportunities to accelerate growth in emerging markets."

Allen & Overy were legal adviser to UBM and the team was led by Jeremy Parr and Alex Tilley.

BCMS acted as financial adviser to the seller of Allworld Exhibitions. J.P. Morgan Cazenove acted as financial adviser to UBM.