The parent company of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has confirmed its intention to do an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.
Ascential, owned by private equity group Apax and the U.K.’s Guardian Media Group, is an events and business information company. Its most important business is the Cannes Lions festival.
The Cannes Lions festival, revealed the American magazine AdAge, has been reassuring the ad world that the proposed move from a private company to a listed one “won’t change the festival’s strategy or goals, or the way it works with the industry”.
It is not clear how how much of their shareholdings each owner will sell in the initial public offering, but it is likely to result in a windfall of hundreds of millions of pounds.
U.K. media reported that the IPO is likely to happen next month, and that Ascential will sell at least 25 per cent of its shares to raise a minimum of $290 million, part of which will be used to pay down the parent company’s debt. Its debt stands at £410m, according to the last publicly available figures, said the Guardian.
A sale or flotation has been rumored for the last couple years. Plans for a flotation were flagged when the company started filing documents necessary to go public at Companies House in the UK.
The current owners bought the company, then known as Emap, in 2008. Emap had acquired the festival in 2004 from eccentric French businessman Roger Hatchuel for $96 million.
In recent years the festival has expanded, adding new awards and contests for whole new industries like healthcare marketing. It has also become almost as much of a must-attend event for marketers, tech companies and a growing number of celebrities as it long has been for agencies.
This year’s June festival on the French Riviera is adding Entertainment Lions and Entertainment Lions for Music, with two separate juries and dedicated winners. Entertainment Lions will cover all forms of audio-visual entertainment, live experiences, gaming, sport and talent.
The decision to float Ascential comes after several months of talks about a potential sale of the business to a number of private equity firms.
Ascential’s most recent public financial filing revealed that the business made adjusted profits of £85.3m in 2014, a 27 per cent year-on-year rise, as revenues rose 9 per cent to £312m. The company said 2015 marked the first time it derived more than 50 per cent of revenues from outside the UK.
“As a team, we have created an industry leading company for informing and connecting business professionals across our exhibitions, festivals and information services products,” commented Ascential’s chief executive, Duncan Painter on the performance.
“The IPO is an exciting and logical step as we seek to continue our momentum. I am confident and excited about our future prospects as we progress towards becoming a listed company.”
Ascential appointed the Rightmove chairman, Scott Forbes, as an adviser to its own board last November.
In recent years, the company has sold parts of its portfolio, including CAP, the automotive information business, for more than £150m and the subsidiary that publishes Broadcast and Screen International magazines for £10m to the private equity firm Mobeus.