Collingwood, the growth, value creation, and M&A advisory for information, media, and events businesses, has announced the completion of four significant transactions in quick succession. The deals, involving Exile Group, Halldale Group, and the complex divestment and carve-out of DVV Media International’s UK portfolio, underscore the current strength in the M&A market, and a growing buyer appetite for high-quality, mixed model businesses.

All of these transactions involve assets that successfully blend live events with data, digital media, and audience intelligence, with deep community engagement. This trend aligns directly with the findings of the Collingwood Market Report, which identified that 58% of buyers now view mixed-model businesses as increasingly attractive assets.

The Four Transactions:

  1. Exile Group: Collingwood advised on investment from Bridgepoint Capital. Exile Group has successfully converged proprietary data, intelligence, and events (including TXF and Proximo) into a unified proposition, overlaid with a unique AI-led technology platform. The deal values the business’s technology moat and its ability to drive deep engagement across both subscription and event channels.
  2. DVV Media International (Road division): In a strategic carve-out, Collingwood advised on the sale of DVV Media International’s Road portfolio to Mark Allen Group. This transaction secured a home for heritage brands – and the market-leading Road Transport Expo – within a leading UK multi-platform publisher.
  3. DVV Media International (Flight, Logistics, Rail, & HR divisions): Simultaneously, Collingwood executed the sale of DVV Media International’s remaining UK assets — comprising the Flight, Heavy Lift, Air Cargo News, Rail and HR portfolios — to ProMedia NV. With complexity in execution, Collingwood led the design and delivery of this strategy, designed to maximise shareholder value by matching specific assets with the most strategic buyers.
  4. Halldale Group: Collingwood advised on the sale of this leading global media and events business serving the aviation training and safety sector to Montgomery Group. Halldale is a prime example of a ‘community-led’ business, anchoring its value in a mix of flagship global summits (such as WATS and EATS) and year-round digital media engagement.

Daniel Pitchford, CEO of Collingwood, commented: “We released the Collingwood Market Report which referenced a growing appetite for mixed model businesses, and specifically those that are able to show a clear link between a more integrated offering and capturing a greater share of customer spend. Whether it is Exile’s fusion of data and events, the enduring legacy of DVV Media International’s 100-year-old brand, or Halldale’s community-led ecosystem, buyers are placing a premium on businesses that own a deeper relationship with their audience, and are able to translate this to customer value across multiple touchpoints.”

The completion of these deals reflects the active market environment highlighted in Collingwood’s research. The Collingwood Market Report noted that H1 2025 was the most active period of dealmaking in the sector since 2022, with 66% of buyers having completed an acquisition in the last 12 months. And this trend has continued with 2025 ending on 259 Information, Media, and Events deals – the highest since 2022 (264).

Connor Agnew, UK MD of Corporate Finance, Collingwood,  said: “Despite broader macroeconomic uncertainty, we are seeing a clear flight to quality. Buyers are competing aggressively for assets that demonstrate high quality of earnings and market leadership. By structuring the DVV divestment as two separate deals, and helping Exile and Halldale articulate the value of their integrated models, we have secured outcomes that not only meet but exceed the valuation trends we are seeing across the wider market.”

 

About Collingwood

Collingwood is the only value creation and M&A advisory that is purpose-built to help information, media, and events businesses create and realise value. Our unrivalled depth of domain expertise means we help these companies grow faster, create more value, and achieve transformational outcomes. Our clients trust us to help them build and execute the right value creation plan for their business, because we know what good looks like, which levers they need to pull to get there, and how to avoid pitfalls and delays along the way. Collingwood’s experienced value creation, transformation, and corporate finance experts work in partnership with clients throughout their growth journey to deliver results. It’s this powerful combination that gets Collingwood’s clients where they need to be, faster and with greater certainty. Our mission is to be the trusted partner for ambitious business leaders, enabling them to create transformational value and enduring legacies, through our deep sector knowledge and pragmatic lived experience. Collingwood is headquartered in London with a US office in New York.

 

About the Collingwood Market Report

The Collingwood Market Report gathers qualitative and quantitative data from over 80 buyers and investors in the information, media and events sectors. Research was conducted from April to August 2025, with all findings generally reflecting activity over the preceding 12 months. Collingwood’s extensive M&A experience and activity, as well as global market data from a number of sources – specifically CapIQ, MergerMarket, Pitchbook, Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions, & Alliances, World Bank, Deutsche Bank Research, OBR, European Central Bank – also informs the Report’s findings and conclusions.

 

For media enquiries, contact Rosalind Hill, Head of Marketing: rosalind.hill@collingwood.group