Informa's £3.8bn takeover of UBM is not a done deal

What do David Lloyd George, Rupert Bear, Sale of the Century (Shenzhen: 300078.SZ - news) and the World of Concrete annual trade fair have in common?

The answer is - a lot more than you'd think.

All merit a mention in a £3.8bn takeover announced on Wednesday that will create the world's biggest business information and events company.

Informa (Frankfurt: A114PL - news) , whose shows include World of Concrete - the "largest annual international event dedicated to concrete and masonry professionals" - is taking over smaller rival UBM (LSE: UBM.L - news) .

The latter dates back to 1918 when, as United Newspapers, it was the vehicle used by the Prime Minister of the day to buy the then-popular newspaper the Daily Chronicle.

It went on in 1985 to buy the Daily Express - famous for its cartoon strips starring Rupert Bear - before later merging with MAI, the then-owner of Anglia Television, renowned for its popular and long-running show Sale of the Century, which kicked off each edition with the words "and now, from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week".

But UBM, which was a major shareholder in Channel 5 at its launch, offloaded its television and newspaper interests many years ago. For the last decade, the company has been focused purely on running events, an activity in which Informa specialises.

The latter, whose chief executive is Lord Carter of Barnes, once an adviser to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has a history dating back even further than UBM.

Its assets include the venerable Lloyd's List, which until it went online-only in 2013 was the world's longest-running daily newspaper.

Its origins lie in the creation of the famous Lloyd's of London insurance market, started when coffee shop owner Edward Lloyd began pinning a daily shipping list to the door of his coffee house in the City in 1734.

Its owner merged with the owner of Datamonitor, the consumer data provider, in 2004 and, down the years, it has published a wealth of academic journals.

Yet it too in recent years has chosen to focus increasingly on exhibitions and events.

The latter has become big business over the last couple of decades and, for a lot of investors in the media sector, is seen as less risky than traditional media because it is less exposed to advertising cycles or to digital disruption.

While Informa retains strong business-to-business and academic publishing arms, global exhibitions is now its fastest-growing activity, with sales growing by 11% during the first half of the most recent financial year.

Informa Exhibitions organises 200 events annually around the world, making it the third-largest player in the sector, with coming events including the Palm Beach International Boat Show, CityScape India in Mumbai and the Anti-Ageing Medicine World Congress in Monte Carlo. UBM, meanwhile, organises 300 events each year.

So why the combination? Lord Carter, who also previously headed the media and telecoms regulator Ofcom, explains: "It is clear that the B2B [business to business] market is moving to operating scale and industry specialisation.

"The combined group will have the reach and market capabilities to take advantage of these brands.

"This is the right moment to combine our strengths, enabling us to capture fully the long-term growth opportunities in this attractive market, bringing benefits for customers and colleagues, as well as generating significant value for shareholders."

The combined company will be a big beast, employing more than 10,000 people around the world, yet the tie-up appears not to have gone down universally well with investors.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) of Informa have fallen by 8% on confirmation of the deal, possibly reflecting concerns over the price it is paying, described by sector analyst Steve Liechti, of stockbroker Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) , as a "full" one.

There may also be regulatory hurdles, particularly in the United States, so Lord Carter is going to need all of his fabled powers of persuasion to get it through.