Bonhill’s UK and Asia brands are the £6.5 million ‘bonus’ for the Mark Allen Group

Bonhill’s UK and Asia brands are the £6.5 million ‘bonus’ for MAG

In what it described as a “very significant purchase”, the Mark Allen Group has exchanged on its acquisition of the UK and Asia assets of the wealth management publishing company, Bonhill Plc, for a consideration of £6.5 million.

These assets include: Bonhill Create, Portfolio Advisor, Expert Investor, International Advisor, Fund Selector Asia, ESG Clarity and Future Flows.

The offer now goes to Bonhill’s shareholders for approval over the next two weeks. The American arm of the company, InvestmentNews, is being sold separately.

Founder and executive chairman of his eponymous company, Mark Allen said: “This is a very significant acquisition for us. We are inheriting some fantastic brands, which we aim to develop further with the help of an excellent and professional team of around 50 people globally.

“Wealth management and financial services is an area of considerable interest and will add to the array of sectors in which we operate. The acquisition also gives us a foothold in Singapore and Hong Kong, an area of the world where we have long wanted to have a presence.”

Mark Allen added: ”During the last few weeks we have had to work very hard and intensely to arrive at this point. Although this is principally an asset sale, local law made it necessary for us to acquire Bonhill’s two Asian companies. I would like to thank Bonhill’s chairman, Jonathan Glasspool and CEO Patrick Ponsford for the professional and very fair way they negotiated this deal. I am delighted that Patrick Ponsford will be joining us to lead the new company, MA Financial Media.”

Chief executive officer Ben Allen explained that the Bonhill assets would be placed in a new company, MA Financial Media, with Patrick Ponsford at the helm reporting to the group’s chief operating officer, Jon Benson. Patrick, along with Bonhill’s COO and MD Asia, Gareth Wilde, and Hannah Lishman, head of commercial finance, will be amongst those becoming directors of the new company. For the next year the Bonhill team will stay in their current Clerkenwell offices.

“This is a very exciting time for the Mark Allen Group”, said Ben Allen, “it presents a golden opportunity for us to enter an attractive area and further build the company. Jon and Patrick will make a formidable team and I am really looking forward to working alongside them.”

Bonhill Group CEO Patrick Ponsford says: “It’s a pleasure to be taking our set of market leading brands to be part of a thoroughbred B2B media company that truly understands what we do and how we do it. Being part of this bigger group with access to new technology and data platforms will help us accelerate our growth plans. It’s been a difficult few years with COVID impacting our considerable events portfolio and a new home will help us rebuild and grow the business.”

Assuming shareholders approve the offer, this will be the fourth deal the Mark Allen Group has undertaken this financial year. The first of these was Regen, an exhibition, conference and networking event for the regeneration industry based in Liverpool.

This was followed by the acquisition of EMEX, a net zero and energy management expo. The last purchase in November 2022 was Sterling Events, another Liverpool-based company, which boasts two exhibitions, Health and Wellbeing at Work and Primary Care and Public Health, to be next held, respectively, at the NEC in Birmingham in March and May.

The Mark Allen Group is the UK’s fastest growing independent media company. Its latest audited accounts up to March 2022 show turnover of £60 million, an increase of 37% from the year before; an EBITDA of £13.1 million, a rise of 28%; and profits before taxation going north to the tune of 54%, from £6.1 million to £9.3 million.

For further information, contact:

Mark Allen mark.allen@markallengroup.com

Ben Allen ben.allen@markallengroup.com

Jon Benson jon.benson@markallengroup.com

Patrick Ponsford patrick.ponsford@bonhillplc.com