Inflexion Private Equity is pleased to announce that the shareholders of CloserStill Media have reached an agreement to sell the exhibitions operator to Providence Equity Partners.

Founded in 2008, CloserStill operates content-led exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, the US and the Far East and has been ranked in The Sunday Times HSBC International FastTrack 200 for three consecutive years. The firm’s success is down to its ability to consistently provide world-class content and attract large, high-value audiences, with The London Vet Show, the Pharmacy Show, Learning Technologies, Cloud Expo Europe, Data Centre World, Cloud Expo and Data Centre Asia in Singapore, in its portfolio.

Since Inflexion’s Partnership Capital Fund acquired a minority stake in CloserStill in March 2015, the business has grown significantly, including successful expansion into Asia, Germany and the US. Inflexion has supported the company’s acquisitive growth strategy, providing capital as well as M&A expertise, with eight acquisitions completed. Inflexion also worked with CloserStill to replicate its exhibitions internationally, with the launch of the first successful shows in the US (New York Vet) and Hong Kong (Cloud Asia). Overall, during Inflexion’s investment the number of exhibitions grew by just under 50% and the proportion of international revenues grew from 20% to 50%.