American private equity firm Blackstone is nearing a deal to buy NEC Group for over £800m (US $1.06bn), Sky News reported yesterday.
Blackstone is the world’s largest property investor, and recently agreed a £1.4bn deal to buy Network Rail’s commercial property portfolio, comprising thousands of premises under railway arches across the UK.
Blackstone specialises in private equity, credit and hedge fund investment strategies, and had $434bn under management as of the end of 2017.
This is not the group’s first investment into the events industry. It follows their purchase of Clarion and Global Sources in July/August 2017, as well as the acquisition of PennWell which took place in April.
