Apollo Global Management announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire trade show and events companies Emerald Holding and Questex, with plans to merge them into a single B2B events platform.
Under the terms of the Emerald deal, stockholders will receive $5.03 per share in cash — a 42.1% premium to Emerald’s unaffected share price — implying a closing enterprise value of about $1.5 billion, Apollo said
Emerald stock closed Friday at $4.57. The price Apollo is paying for privately held Questex was not disclosed, though it is smaller than the Emerald transaction, according to The Wall Street Journal. Onex, the investment firm that holds more than 90% of Emerald’s outstanding stock, has entered into a support agreement to vote in favor of the deal.
Apollo is acquiring Questex from private equity firm MidOcean Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. Emerald’s board approved the transaction unanimously. Together, the two companies would operate about 160 events across complementary industries, Apollo said.