Tarsus agrees £561m sale to Charterhouse

Tarsus Group has agreed to sell itself for £668m to a subsidiary of funds advised by private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners.

Tiger Acquisitions will pay 425p a share in cash to buy the exhibitions and publishing company. The price is a premium of 36.2% over Tarsus's closing price of 312p a share on Thursday.

The deal values Tarsus's equity at £561m and gives the company an enterprise value of £668m, valuing it at 17 times Tarsus's average earnings for 2017 and 2018.

Tarsus said its board would recommend shareholders accept the offer. It said shareholders representing more than 40% of the company's shares had agreed to vote for the deal at a general meeting to approve it.

Neville Buch, Tarsus's chairman, said: "We believe that the acquisition provides significant value for Tarsus's shareholders, whilst ensuring that Tarsus can continue its journey as a leading exhibitions business with an owner that can provide the capital and industry experience to support Tarsus's future growth. We believe that the acquisition is in the interests of Tarsus's shareholders, employees and customers."

Charterhouse said the exhibitions industry was growing and had strong margins and cash generation. The market is highly fragmented and Charterhouse intends to provide the funding for Tarsus to build on its record of acquisitions to consolidate the market, it said.