Same Assets, Different Climate: Florent Jarry on the Stax Top20
The businesses at the top of the exhibition industry did not change last year. The investment case for them did. That is the thread running through my second annual conversation with Florent Jarry, Partner at Grant Thornton Stax, on the firm's Top 20 ranking of exhibition organisers, published on 17 September.
The headline figures are strong: combined Top 20 revenues of $11.7bn in 2025, up around 14%, and close to $6bn of private equity invested in Top 20 organisers so far in 2026. Underneath, the picture is more nuanced, and in places better than the headline suggests. The full conversation is in the video above. These are its main findings:
Growth beneath the headline
Informa accounts for 65% of the Top 20's revenue increase, largely through its acquisition of the Ascential assets. Excluding Informa, the cohort grew around 7%. Florent's view is that this is still a good place to be: roughly double GDP, and above normalised pre-COVID growth rates. The industry is now in a post-COVID era, and slower growth than in the recovery years was to be expected.
The more telling shift is where growth now comes from. Alongside the organic growth of existing events, Florent points to new launches and new revenue streams: sponsorship, digital, and visitor ticketing. Organisers are also going to market with a broader set of formats, including confexes and one-to-one events. He describes this as a continuing sophistication of organiser revenue models.
RX and the German Messen: read past the headline
RX's revenues were broadly flat in 2025 at $1.6bn. Florent argues the headline hides a stronger business. RX reports around 8% like-for-like growth on its continuing portfolio. The gap is explained by the sale of RX Austria, biennial effects such as EuroBLECH not running, events paused or relocated (MIP TV reinvented in the UK, Mondial du Bâtiment moved by a year), and unfavourable exchange rates. Operating margin rose by two to two-and-a-half points, to around 34.6% by his account. He sees RX building revenue in sponsorship, digital, and visitor ticketing, with continued portfolio management rather than aggressive acquisition.
The German Messen tell a similar story. Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, and Nürnberg were flat or slightly down on 2024, but all grew by double digits against 2023, the comparable odd year. Florent credits their international expansion, cautious long-term investment, and partnerships with local trade associations.
What unlocked $6bn
A year ago, Florent described private equity as keen to invest but struggling to win investment committee approval. The concerns were cyclicality, geopolitics and high valuations. Since then, Hellman & Friedman has acquired Hyve, Searchlight has joined Providence at CloserStill, and Apollo has combined Emerald and Questex (into Forge). Valuations have risen, not fallen. So what changed?
Florent names AI as the main factor. Two or three years ago, AI was seen as a potential disruptor of events. It is now seen as an efficiency tool for organisers, and as a disruptor of online marketing and content. That makes in-person events one of the few places where trust is still built, and turns face-to-face into what he calls a highly defensive asset class. Software, tech-enabled services, data and information businesses, the previous favourites of private equity, now face hard questions about AI disruption, lower barriers to entry, and weaker moats. Face-to-face is seen as protected, or even benefiting.
Two other shifts helped. Tariff uncertainty, which was alarming investors 18 months ago, is now treated as the new normal, and has had no major impact on large trade show organisers. Investment committees still see the sector as cyclical, but now ask a different question: how fast does it bounce back? An answer of 12 to 18 months reassures them.
Clarion is the clearest illustration. Florent attributes its incomplete 2025 sale process to timing: tariffs, concerns about China exposure, and an AI tailwind not yet felt. Conditions in 2026 are very different. He also noted that some failed processes of past years, including Emerald, Questex, and Hansen Wade, have now exited historical investors successfully.
He adds a caution. AI evolves quickly, and so does investor appetite.
Here’s more on the matter: From flip to hold: 20+ years of PE investment in B2B events
Events move to the centre of the marketing budget
The investment case extends well beyond organisers. Florent cites Grant Thornton Stax's surveys of marketers in the US and Europe, which show experiential spend moving from a side budget to the centre of marketing strategy. Trade shows, corporate events, and activations are increasingly the anchor around which online engagement and wider marketing plans are built. The shift is strongest in the US and is starting to reach Europe.
That supports the whole ecosystem: experiential and marketing agencies, fabricators, exhibit houses, general contractors, AV rental, hotels, and destination management companies. Investors see room for professionalisation, consolidation, and AI-driven automation and efficiency. Florent compares it to cybersecurity, where investors wanted exposure to category growth at any layer: vendor, distributor, or service provider. Events are now attracting the same category conviction.
Here’s my take on the situation: ‘Boring’ Compounds. 20+ years of investment in the picks and shovels of live events
Essentially, nothing in the halls changed between 2025 and 2026. The alternatives did. That is the strength of the new investment case and its exposure. Same assets, different climate, but don’t forget, climates turn.
Florent and I will be back next September to see whether this one holds.
My take: a more favourable investment climate puts the quality of the underlying business into sharper focus. If events are becoming more central to marketing budgets, organisers will need to show what that spend delivers. If trust is part of the investment case, the quality of the people, conversations, and connections in the room becomes a strategic priority.
And, investor appetite will move again. The work for leadership teams is to turn today’s confidence into businesses that customers have stronger reasons to return to: better events, more useful services, and revenue growth grounded in the value they create. That is what will matter in the next climate, too.
In the meantime, if you're an investor weighing the category, or an organiser preparing for one, I'd be glad to compare notes. Get in touch via email baris@barisonay.com.
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