Sinopharm is just first step

An interesting follow-up to the Reed Sinopharm announcement in Forbes which quotes Mike Rushbridge as follows:

...the company planned to double its business in Asia in three to five years and that Asia would represent 20 to 25 pct of Reed Exhibition's global business in the same time period.

'If anyone looks at the number of halls being built in cities across China it's truly remarkable... and the exhibition industry will grow to fill those facilities,' he said.

He is quoted as inviting more deals of the Sinopharm type:

I hope that other state-owned enterprises see what we're achieving with Sinopharm and we hope to develop other such partnerships,' he said.

We shall watch this development with great interest.

Update: The Sunday Times in London, in a pre-announcement article, has valued the deal at $50 million although that basis of that valuation isn't clear. If it's even close, it is certainly the biggest trade fair deal in China yet.

The Financial Times doesn't speculate on the value of this deal although it does suggest that Reed's China revenues are now $100 million. We assume that is for the whole of Reed Elsevier.