Acquisition cost not material

Thank goodness we have the Daily Torygraph on which to rely when it comes to understanding our industry. It's interesting that the newspaper chooses to report on Reed Exhibition's buy-in to the Shenzhen SinoExpo gift fair business.

Given the tortuous negotiations which I feel sure will have accompanied the closing of such a deal, I'm sure both sides will be intrigued to hear that "the cost is understood not to be material". I'll bet it was to them although, to be fair to the Torygraph's Mark Kleinman, probably not in the greater scheme of things for the Reed Elsevier mother ship.

This deal seems to have been quite the worst-kept secret in the Asian exhibitions industry. I've lost count of the number of people who have mentioned it in the past few months. Commercial confidentiality remains a foreign concept across much of China (so, buyers beware!).

The Reed Exhibitions management team must be relieved to generate a UK newspaper story which did not mention defence shows!