British firm to acquire Penton Media

British business information group Informa Plc said on Thursday it had agreed to buy New York-based information services company Penton Media Inc. for $1.6 billion to expand in the United States and grow its global exhibitions business.

Penton has operations in Boulder and Fort Collins.

Officials at those two locations and Penton’s headquarters in New York could not be reached Thursday.

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Penton owns New Hope Network in Boulder, which manages events like Natural Products Expo West, Natural Products Expo East and Engredea, and publishes Natural Foods Merchandising and Delicious Living magazines.

Penton acquired Boulder-based New Hope Communications Inc. from Doug Greene in 1999 for $82 million — $41 million in cash and about 2.1 million shares of common stock.

Penton’s operation in Fort Collins focuses on technology products.

In 2000, Penton Media purchased Duke Communications International – formerly one of Loveland’s largest employers – from its founder, David Duke, and moved operations to Fort Collins in 2010.

At the time of the purchase in 2000, Penton Media published trade magazines that ranged from aviation to health foods, while Duke specialized in high-tech trade journals.

Informa plans to buy Penton from private-equity firms MidOcean Partners and Wasserstein & Co.

Penton owns brands in aviation, agriculture, natural food products, infrastructure, and technology, media and telecommunications sectors.

Informa, which also publishes real-time news, research, market data and academic books, bought U.S. trade show operator Hanley Wood Exhibitions in 2014.

Informa’s global exhibitions business runs 170 trade and consumer events annually, including the China Beauty Expo, World of Concrete and Arab Health. The division accounted for about 22 percent of revenue in 2015.

The deal is expected to close in November.