Terrapinn joins the big league

Terrapinn joins the big league

By Colin Morrison CBE

11 AUGUST 2023

Reproduced with permission of Flashes and Flames

https://flashesandflames.com/2023/08/11/terrapinn-joins-the-big-league/

It’s twenty-five years since Greg Hitchen moved to the UK from Australia to become CEO of the newly-renamed Terrapinn events company. It was the latest reshuffle in the life of a B2B company founded in Sydney by Tony Steel OAM as Australian Investment Publishing in 1987. Four years later, its $1mn venture partner went bust and Steel bought the company back.

He then sold the magazine business to UK-based Quarto Publications and 75% of the seminar business to Euromoney Institutional Investor. Steel kept the other 25%, saying: ”Most publishers are very bad at conferences. I was very bad at publishing”. In 1995, the company produced 1,000 conferences and 1,000 training seminars. But a profit collapse led Steel again to buy back the conference company then known as AiC. As revenue fell from $70mn to $38mn during 1996-99, Steel cut the operations and halved the headcount to 200.

By 2000, it was go-go again.

Steel was forecasting revenue of $60mn, 75% of which would be generated from outside Australia (mainly Europe and Asia) with a portfolio focused largely on technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services. In the early days of the internet, more than 50% of Terrapinn’s bookings were made online.

That was the start of what has since become primarily an international exhibitions business with operations in Australia, Singapore, Dubai, the UK and US. It is now one of the world’s 20 largest trade show organisers whose most successful events include: the World Vaccine Congress, World Aviation Festival (#aviationfest), Seamless Middle East (#SeamlessDXB), Edutech Australia (#EduTECHAU), Home Delivery World USA (#HomeDeliveryWorld), Connected Britain (#ConnectedBritain), and Solar & Storage Live UK (#solarstoragelive).

In recent years, Terrapinn has spent almost $15mn on four acquisitions: the Accounting and Business Expo and Accounting Tech Expo in Australia, and Science Media Partners (Terrapinn UK) , Solar & Storage Live, and Highways in the UK, variously for some 5-8x EBITDA. It recently acquired the $1mn-revenue Houston, US-based Broadband Communities publishing and events for an estimated $500k.

To reinforce its credentials as one of the fastest-growing event companies, Terrapinn managed to stay (just) profitable during Covid and bounced back in 2022 with best-ever revenue and profit.

This year, it has increased revenue by 45% and is almost 60% ahead of pre-pandemic 2019. EBITDA has more than doubled in the past five years.

The 2023 leap is attributed primarily to strong growth in the Middle East and in solar energy events pitched at the whole industry from utilities to facility managers and installers. Terrapinn has been organising solar shows since launching in South Africa in 2008 and its expected slate of 13 shows in 2024 is claimed to make it a world leader.

This year, some $75mn of revenue (70%) is accounted for by three sectors: Transport & Logistics, Life Science & Health, and Enterprise Technology – a 60% increase on 2019. Transport & Logistics has increased by 70% to ￡27mn during that five years and Education & Learning has doubled to $11mn.

Notably, Terrapinn’s geographical growth has been broadly global with Europe accounting for 33% of revenue (2019: 41%), AsiaPacific 27% (18%), USA 20% (17%) and Middle East/ Africa 20% (24%).

The self-professed “organic, creative and entrepreneurial company that has created the majority of our event brands” has been lauded by Russell Wilcox, chair of rival Clarion Events : “Terrapinn has got soul.”

But what’s next?

The 450-person Terrapinn has recently secured debt finance of $20mn which, with strong cashflow, can enable some larger acquisitions. But – with ownership 50% by Steel and 28% and 22% respectively by Hitchen and the rest of the management team – perhaps the 25-year-old company (named after “one of the four celestial animals of feng shui”) will be snapped up by a larger rival or private equity buyer.

Will a price of $300mn+ (15x EBITDA) tempt even this most independent team of exhibition operators? Or will Terrapinn itself become the predator?

Reproduced with permission of Flashes and Flames.

www.flashesandflames.com