LONDON, 24 August 2022 – Arc, the global events, data, and media platform backed by investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital, announced today it has completed its first acquisition of a US-based business. The transaction includes the events and media assets of HighQuest, Global AgInvesting (GAI), Women in Agribusiness (WIA), Unconventional Ag (UA), and the Ag Club.

Headquartered near Boston, HighQuest produces media and events for the agribusiness sector around the globe. Its annual summits take place in the US, UK, and Japan. The Global AgInvesting summits are the world’s largest gatherings of agriculture investors and sector stakeholders, and the Women in Agribusiness summits provide a network platform at the forefront of women’s excellence in agribusiness. In addition to the flagship GAI NY and WIA, the team also produces a suite of other live events, host webinars, run GAI News, and produce research for the sector.

HighQuest CEO, Greg Mellinger, said, “During the financial crisis in 2009, we launched our first conference in response to the ballooning interest in farmland investment. Since then, we’ve been on a tremendous growth journey as an organization becoming the world leader in connecting the agriculture investment communities, creating a platform for promoting women’s excellence in agribusiness, and continuously finding new ways to connect industry stakeholders. With an increasing global focus on food security the need to connect on sustainable strategies to propel forward the future of global agriculture has never been more pressing. We have big ambitions to assist our clients’ growth and success in this sector, and so we are extremely pleased to be partnering with Arc to further develop the business.”

Arc Group CEO, Simon Foster, said, “I’m delighted to welcome Greg and the team to Arc. This is a great business, in a high-growth sector, that also happens to be a perfect fit for our network. These brands sit at the intersection of our established sector communities – finance, agriculture, food, and sustainability – and have a particularly strong fit with brands like Professional Pensions, Sustainable Investment, and Bridge2Food. We look forward to working closely with Greg and the team, to sharing best practices throughout the network and helping to grow GAI, WIA, UA and the Ag Club.”

This is Arc’s first investment in North America and fifth acquisition in the last twelve months. Arc continues its development as the next generation events and media platform supporting B2B communities around the world.

Canson Capital Partners, a participant in the Arc partnership since its inception, served as financial adviser to Arc.

For more information on the brands

Arc

Arc is a B2B events, data, and media platform, backed by investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital. Founded to redefine business networking, Arc organises over 100 events a year and runs some of the foremost content platforms in agriculture, food, business sustainability, and financial services. Arc has 220 talented colleagues located in the UK, Netherlands, and US that focus on seeking out new ways to connect communities, wherever, whenever, or however, people need to come together to grow their business.

EagleTree Capital

EagleTree Capital is a leading New York-based middle-market private equity firm that has completed over 40 private equity investments and over 80 add-on transactions over the past 20+ years. EagleTree primarily invests in North America in the following sectors: media and business services, consumer, and water and specialty industrial. For more information, visit www.eagletree.com or find EagleTree on LinkedIn.

Canson Capital Partners

Canson Capital Partners is a leading Alternative Capital focused Advisory and Merchant Banking firm. Providing senior advice and principal to principal engagement, we seek to connect sources of Alternative Capital with specific opportunities enabling our clients to achieve their long-term strategic objectives. Since inception, Canson has advised on transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of c.$70 billion, with a strong track record of partnership focused transactions, and have c. $500m AUM invested alongside our clients. Notably, Canson advised Providence on its £600m sale of Clarion Events to Blackstone. Canson Capital Partners is the trading name of Canson Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. For more information, please visit www.cansoncp.com