Latham, Kirkland and Linklaters line up on £1.3bn events company buyout

PE house Hellman & Friedman has purchased UK events company Hyve for a reported £1.3 billion, with Latham & Watkins, Kirkland and Linklaters advising.

Hyve, which holds a portfolio of conference, trade show and other corporate event brands, is the eighth-largest events organiser globally.

Under its new ownership, the company will focus on international launches and scaling in growing end markets via acquisitions, according to a press release.

Previous owners Providence Capital Partners and Searchlight Capital Partners took the business private in London for less than £500 million three years ago, in a deal that saw Willkie Farr & Gallagher advising Searchlight and Weil advising Providence. Hyve drafted in Macfarlanes on the sale.

The bumper profit reflects the post-Covid demand for in-person corporate events in a hybrid-working world. The company’s revenue hit $391 million last year, seeing 15% organic growth and 39% including acquisitions.

Advising

Latham is advising buyers Hellman & Friedman on the M&A and equity financing aspects of the acquisition, with London corporate partner David Walker leading the team.

Also on the Latham team are Beijing partner Hui Xu, Dubai’s Omar Maayeh, London data and tech partner Christian McDermott and tax partner Helen Lethaby. Antitrust partners David Little and Tomas Nilsson also acted on the deal.

Kirkland & Ellis’ Kirsteen Nicol and Suroop Singh Kandola led on the buyout's debt financing, and tax partners Peter Abbott, Polina Liberman and Cosmos Fung were also on the bench.

Hyve’s former PE owners Providence and Searchlight engaged Linklaters for advice on the sale.

The team was led by global finance co-head Alex Woodward and PE partner Tom Gavin, with antitrust partner Jonny Ford and tax partner Jamie Coomber supporting.