A package of farming publications and events including two core businesses – Farmers Guardian and the LAMMA show – are changing hands following an agreement for AgriBriefing to sell the assets to Arc Media Holdings, a new events, data and media business.
Arc is led by Simon Foster, a former CEO at UBM (now Informa) and the French exhibitions specialist Comexposium, who describes Arc as a “business-to-business platform for energising business connections.”
In addition to Farmers Guardian and LAMMA, the agreement covers Dairy Farmer and Arable Farming, the CropTec arable technology exhibition, and the British Farming Awards.
These assets represent the first acquisition by Arc, which is backed by investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital, a New York-based private equity firm that includes media and business services among its investments focus.
Robert Gray, EagleTree operating partner, said: “These are strong multi-platform brands and a highly appealing sector to have as the starting point for building the next generation events and media platform for B2B communities around the World.”
He added that the Arc team for this acquisition will be led by Sanjeev Khaira, who will work in partnership with current managing director Warren Butcher and the management team to support and continue the strategic growth plans of each business. Together, he said, they intend to accelerate the growth and prominence of the LAMMA and CropTec events, and expand the reach and influence of Farmers Guardian, Dairy Farmer, Arable Farming and online brands.
Rory Brown, CEO of AgriBriefing said: “While we are pleased to announce the next evolution of AgriBriefing, in many ways today is a bittersweet day. The acquisition of Farmers Guardian from UBM in 2012 represented the original pillar around which we have built our company and we are enormously proud of the job our teams have done over the past 10 years.
“We are passing on a truly user-centric, multi-platform media, events and digital powerhouse that has greater depth and reach into UK farming than at any time in its history; we are hugely grateful to everyone we have worked with over the years.”
AgriBriefing will now focus on its global pricing, analytics, forecasting, market data and consulting units based on the digital enterprise subscription services Urner Barry, Feedinfo, Stratégie Grains, Agrimoney, Foreign Trade Data, Seafood News, Foodmarket and Obsono, which provide proprietary data and intelligence on the estimated US$5tn global trade in agricultural commodities, food and biofuel.
“This is a dynamic and under-served market segment with a great growth trajectory,” says Rory Brown. “We will continue to build this business both organically and through further targeted acquisitions.”
