Informa Buys ICE Organizer Clarion Events From Blackstone for £2.24 Billion

Informa has agreed to buy Clarion Events, the company behind the ICE gambling trade show in Barcelona, from Blackstone at an enterprise value of £2.24 billion, or about $3 billion. The London-listed events group announced the deal on October 6, alongside a plan to separate its Taylor & Francis academic publishing business.

ICE is the trade’s main marketplace, and Informa’s announcement calls it the “global leader” in gaming events. Clarion’s own pitch for the show is “land-based, online, lottery, sports, betting, payments, plus the regulators writing the rules for all of them, under one roof for three days.” The suppliers and operators behind real money online casinos do their business on that floor every January.

Blackstone Cashes Out After Nine Years

Informa’s company update puts the price at 11.1 times the EBITDA Clarion is expected to make in 2027, and says it will be paid in cash. Clarion is forecast to bring in more than £575 million of revenue that year, with operating margins above 30%.

Blackstone bought Clarion in 2017 from Providence Equity Partners for £600 million, Investing.com reported. Lionel Assant, Blackstone’s global co-chief investment officer, said in Clarion’s statement that “we believe Informa is the ideal partner for Clarion’s next chapter.”

To help pay for it, Informa raised about £940 million on the day of the announcement by selling new shares at 860 pence each. The new stock comes to about 8.7% of the company’s existing share capital. Acquisition financing covers the rest, and Informa has paused its share buyback.

Gaming Is One of Three Prizes

Clarion owns more than 100 business event brands. Informa names three sectors where the purchase gives it “immediate scale entry”, and gaming is one of them. Electronics comes through IFA Berlin and defense through DSEI. Gaming comes through ICE.

Informa already runs more than 800 event brands. After the deal it expects about 1,000 brands and live events revenue above £4.2 billion. The only bigger deal between exhibition organizers was Informa’s own $5.2 billion purchase of UBM in 2018, according to Skift Meetings, an events industry publication.

Stephen A. Carter, Informa’s group chief executive, said after the share sale: “The interest in our shares reflects strong investor support for the acquisition of Clarion and the decision to focus Informa as a leading international B2B business.”

Clarion’s Boss Is Staying

Clarion chief executive Lisa Hannant will remain in her role and join Informa’s executive leadership team. She said: “Informa’s decision to invest in Clarion is a recognition of the quality of our business, our brands and our people.”

Nothing changes for exhibitors yet. Clarion told customers, sponsors and suppliers that business “will continue as usual.”

A Record Show Changes Hands

The numbers explain why Informa wanted it. Clarion says its January show week in Barcelona drew a record 62,988 people from 162 nations, and 51,996 of them were at ICE itself, up 4% on 2025. The organizer says those figures are independently audited.

Stuart Hunter, the managing director of Clarion’s gaming division, said before the show that exhibitors “plan their R&D cycles around” it. He projected that around 25,000 products and services would be unveiled there.

That launch calendar is the part players end up seeing. Evolution, the supplier behind the tables at many live dealer casinos, used this year’s show to give first looks at its Monopoly live games and a roadmap of more than 110 releases, new online Slots among them.

Barcelona Keeps the Show Through 2029

ICE moved from London to Barcelona in 2025, and Clarion signed an initial five-year contract with the city that runs through 2029. The next edition is booked for January 18-20 at Fira Barcelona Gran Via. An economic impact study by the advisory firm Equimore, published by the organizer in September, put this year’s contribution to the Catalan economy at €255 million.

Informa does not own it yet. The company expects the purchase to complete toward the end of the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.