The corporate owners of the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS), Nielsen Holdings N.V., announced in early May that its division focusing on expositions and events is being sold to Onex Corporation for $950 million. Nielsen Expositions is currently the largest business-to-business (b2b) tradeshow operator in the United States, a title that is expected to be assumed by Onex sometime within the first half of 2013.
Nielsen Expositions, headquartered in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., produces more than 65 b2b tradeshows and events in up to nine markets each year, including KBIS for the kitchen and bath market. In 2012, the division pulled in revenue of nearly $183 million, operating out of four offices staffed by 240 employees.
President of Nielsen Expositions, David Loechner, went on record stating that the deal “is an exciting development,” and Onex already has a proven record of successfully producing similar tradeshows and conferences.
Representatives of Nielsen have stated that the company plans to work closely with Onex to ensure that events such as KBIS will be in good hands, continue to grow and serve all event participants better than ever. The goal is to conduct a seamless transaction to the benefit of longtime clients and associates.
In a statement made by Onex Managing Director Kosty Gills, the company plans on expanding existing shows by using the leverage it has spent years developing. This is corroborated by the CFO of Nielsen, Brian West, who said, “We believe under Onex’s ownership, a great business will achieve even greater success.”
Onex is a multinational, private equity firm with offices in New York, London and Toronto. Its past strategy has been to develop key business partnerships with successful management teams, and the company now manages approximately $15 billion in assets, $5 billion of which is proprietary capital. In total, Onex’s annual revenues are about $37 billion, and the company employs 243,000 people.
