T&F Informa Plc, publisher of the Lloyd's List shipping newspaper and organizer of the annual 3GSM conference, agreed to buy IIR Holdings Ltd for US$1.4 billion in cash to expand its events organizing and training business.

IIR, which employs 3,000 people, organizes about 1,400 conferences a year and provides training to companies and the US Government, T&F Informa said yesterday. The company was founded in 1973 as a publisher of newsletters by Irvine Laidlaw, its majority shareholder.

T&F Informa, created when Informa Plc combined with Taylor & Francis Plc last May, has increased revenue as a recovery in the telecommunications and insurance industries boosts advertising income. IIR's contracts with US Government departments and companies will help the company expand in North America.

"The business adds to what they already have: It seems to be a good deal," said Lawrence Peterman, investment director at Eden Group Plc in London.

To finance the acquisition, London-based T&F Informa will sell shares to existing investors at 265 pence each to raise 311 million pounds. The purchase of IIR will "significantly" increase earnings per share excluding goodwill and one-time items in the first fiscal year, the company said. Greenhill & Co advised it on the purchase, T&F Informa said.

T&F Informa owns more than 2,500 publications and subscription-based products and organizes 2,800 conferences a year.

IIR was created as a publisher of international newsletters in 1973 and started a UK conference business in 1978. The company moved into exhibitions in 1984, and now runs the Monaco Yacht Show and IPEX for the printing industry.

(China Daily 06/02/2005 page12)