Executive Summary / Key Takeaways

• Emerald Holding, Inc. (EEX) is undergoing a significant strategic transformation, shifting from a decentralized model to a unified platform, aggressively optimizing its portfolio through divestitures of underperforming assets, and executing targeted acquisitions in high-growth sectors.
• The company's Q3 2025 performance, while showing a net loss, demonstrated robust revenue growth of 6.7% year-over-year, primarily driven by strategic acquisitions, and a 2.4% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, reflecting effective cost management.
• Technological differentiation, particularly with the launch of an AI-powered event agent and platforms like Elastic Suite, is enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency, strengthening Emerald's competitive moat in the B2B events space.
• Emerald has raised and narrowed its full-year 2025 guidance, projecting revenue between $460 million and $465 million and Adjusted EBITDA between $122.5 million and $127.5 million, signaling confidence in its strategic execution and increased visibility.
• Despite macroeconomic headwinds like tariffs and temporary disruptions from Las Vegas Convention Center construction, strong rebooking momentum for H1 2026 and a disciplined capital allocation strategy, including debt refinancing and share repurchases, position Emerald for sustained long-term value creation.

A Transformed Platform for B2B Engagement

Emerald Holding, Inc. (EEX), incorporated in 2013, has evolved into a leading business-to-business (B2B) event organizer, primarily operating in the United States with an expanding international footprint. The company's core business revolves around creating market-driven platforms that integrate live events, media content, industry insights, digital tools, and e-commerce solutions. This comprehensive approach aims to deliver uniquely rich experiences that help businesses connect, learn, and grow. Emerald's portfolio typically features market-leading positions within its respective industry verticals, with events often being the largest and most well-attended, attracting high-quality attendees with purchasing authority.

Historically, Emerald operated as a decentralized federation of brands. However, a pivotal transformation initiated in 2024 has seen the company consolidate onto a unified "Emerald platform," leveraging scalable infrastructure to drive organic growth, improve customer efficiency, and enhance financial performance. This strategic shift is designed to allow Emerald to manage more events effectively, with underlying overhead growing at a much lower rate than overall revenue, thereby driving higher margins.

Technological Edge and Innovation

A key differentiator for Emerald is its commitment to technological innovation, particularly in enhancing the customer experience and driving operational efficiencies. The company recently launched an AI-powered event agent across selected shows, an early step in leveraging artificial intelligence to simplify attendee interactions. This platform automates many pre-, during-, and post-event interactions, providing real-time access to key event information, improving service, and streamlining setup. This is particularly valuable given the complexity of trade show logistics, where exhibitor manuals can often be 50-page documents. The company plans to expand these AI-driven platforms across more events into 2026.

Beyond AI, Emerald's proprietary platforms like Elastic Suite and Bulletin offer B2B e-commerce and digital merchandising solutions, serving manufacturers and retailers. Elastic Suite, in particular, has been a driver of growth in the Commerce segment, streamlining wholesale buying processes and appealing to retail buyers seeking simplicity. These technological advancements contribute to Emerald's competitive moat by improving customer satisfaction, enhancing operational efficiency, and providing tangible value that differentiates its offerings from competitors.

Strategic Portfolio Optimization and Growth

Emerald's strategic narrative is deeply rooted in its aggressive portfolio optimization efforts. In 2024, the company pruned several unprofitable events, establishing a nimbler portfolio primed for growth. This was complemented by earlier strategic realignments in its content and commerce businesses.

The year 2025 has been marked by significant strategic acquisitions, further diversifying Emerald's portfolio into high-growth, resilient sectors:

• Insurtech Insights (Acquired March 13, 2025): This acquisition provides Emerald a foothold in the rapidly growing insurance technology sector, an industry seeing meaningful investments in customer experience, automation, AI, and cloud computing. The global insurance industry is projected to grow at a 5-6% CAGR through 2030, with technology providers expected to exceed this rate.
• This is Beyond Limited (Acquired May 2, 2025): A London-based organizer of B2B luxury travel and entertainment travel trade shows, this acquisition expands Emerald's presence in the attractive luxury sector. Luxury travel demand surged in 2023 and continues to grow, with high-end experiential events emphasizing thought leadership and networking.
• Generis Group (Acquired August 8, 2025): This Canada-based organizer of B2B executive summits enhances Emerald's offerings in executive-level experiences and peer-to-peer connections. With Generis, Emerald now hosts over 50 peer-to-peer events annually, solidifying its position in high-level, results-oriented networking.

These acquisitions are expected to contribute approximately $40 million in revenue and $15 million in Adjusted EBITDA to Emerald's financials in 2025. The company's exposure to the luxury category has increased to over 13% of revenue on a pro forma basis (from less than 8% before), and the technology sector exposure has risen to 15% (from 13% before).

Financial Performance and Operational Discipline

Emerald's financial performance in the first nine months of 2025 reflects the impact of its strategic initiatives and ongoing operational discipline. For the three months ended September 30, 2025, total revenue increased by $4.90 million, or 6.7%, to $77.50 million compared to the prior year. This growth was primarily driven by incremental revenue from acquisitions, which contributed $12.50 million. However, organic revenue for the quarter declined by 6.8% year-over-year, largely due to ongoing construction at the Las Vegas Convention Center and, to a lesser extent, tariff headwinds affecting a major event.

Despite the organic revenue decline in Q3, Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased by 2.4% to $12.80 million, driven by higher operating income from events and continued cost management. The net loss for Q3 2025 was $14.40 million, wider than the $11.10 million loss in Q3 2024, primarily due to higher selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses. SG&A expenses increased to $51.30 million (from $40.80 million in Q3 2024), mainly due to acquisition-related costs, higher stock-based compensation, and contingent consideration remeasurements, though underlying cost increases remained muted.

Year-to-date (nine months ended September 30, 2025), total revenue grew significantly by 13.3% to $330.70 million, with acquisitions and higher organic revenues contributing to this increase. Year-to-date Adjusted EBITDA rose by 32.4% to $90.80 million, reflecting strong revenue growth from acquired businesses and a focus on margin optimization. The underlying SG&A at Emerald has been "flattish for 3 years now," demonstrating significant leverage from the organization and a disciplined approach to cost management.

Liquidity and Capital Allocation

Emerald maintains a strong balance sheet and a disciplined approach to capital allocation. On January 30, 2025, the company successfully refinanced its debt, replacing an existing $409 million term loan with a new $515 million senior secured term loan maturing in 2032 and extending its $110 million revolving credit facility to 2030. This refinancing significantly enhanced financial flexibility and reduced financing costs by 125 basis points.

As of September 30, 2025, Emerald had $95.40 million in cash and cash equivalents, with total liquidity of $205.4 million, including full availability on its revolving credit facility. The net debt to covenant EBITDA ratio stood at 2.96x, remaining within the company's sub-3.0x financial policy target after the Generis acquisition. Free cash flow for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, was $24.20 million, an increase of $5.60 million from the prior year. However, reported free cash flow was impacted by the timing of cash collections for recent acquisitions, which were treated as purchase price adjustments rather than operating cash flow.

The Board has demonstrated a commitment to returning value to shareholders through share repurchases and quarterly dividends. An extension and expansion of the share repurchase program was approved on October 30, 2025, authorizing up to $25 million in common stock repurchases through December 31, 2026. A quarterly dividend of $0.01 per share was declared for the quarter ending December 31, 2025.

Competitive Landscape and Positioning

The U.S. trade show industry is highly fragmented, with the five largest companies, including Emerald, comprising only 8% of the wider market. This fragmentation presents ongoing opportunities for Emerald's acquisition-led growth strategy. Emerald competes with major players such as Informa PLC , RELX Group , and Ascential (AIAPF), all of whom operate in B2B events, digital content, and marketing services.

Emerald's market positioning is strengthened by its focus on specialized, sector-specific trade shows, particularly in areas like retail, design, and technology. Its strong brand in U.S. B2B trade shows fosters customer loyalty, translating into recurring revenue. Proprietary technology like Elastic Suite and the new AI-powered event agent provide tangible advantages by streamlining B2B transactions and enhancing customer experience, offering greater efficiency compared to broader digital tools offered by some competitors. While larger global competitors like Informa (IFNCY) and RELX (RELX) benefit from their scale and diversified analytics services, Emerald's targeted operational execution and customer-focused innovation in niche sectors can lead to superior margins and stronger customer retention in its core markets. However, Emerald's more limited global scale and potentially lower R&D investment compared to these larger rivals could impact its overall market share capture and innovation speed in broader technological advancements.

The company's strategy to diversify into high-growth industries like luxury travel and insurtech directly addresses competitive pressures by increasing exposure to resilient sectors. The enduring value of face-to-face interactions, as highlighted by management, remains a core competitive advantage, especially in an environment increasingly saturated with AI-generated content, which can lead to skepticism and a heightened demand for authenticity.

Outlook and Growth Trajectory

Emerald has raised and narrowed its full-year 2025 guidance, now expecting revenue in the range of $460 million to $465 million and Adjusted EBITDA between $122.5 million and $127.5 million. This updated outlook reflects the positive impact of the Generis acquisition and increased visibility as the year-end approaches. The company anticipates at least a mid-single-digit organic growth rate for the full year.

Management is observing solid rebooking momentum for the first half of 2026, indicating sustained customer confidence in the value and reach of Emerald's portfolio. The Generis acquisition is expected to contribute an additional $10 million in revenue in 2026, as the 2025 acquisition occurred after its first-half events. A significant tailwind for 2026 is the expected completion of construction at the Las Vegas Convention Center by the end of 2025. This will allow events to return to their normal structure, meaningfully improving the customer experience and mitigating the negative impact seen in 2025.

Risks and Challenges

Despite a positive outlook, Emerald faces several risks. The company's event cancellation insurance policies, renewed starting in 2022, no longer cover losses due to communicable disease outbreaks, posing a risk to financial results and liquidity in such events. Ongoing construction at the Las Vegas Convention Center has negatively impacted organic revenue for certain large events, creating a "difficult customer experience."

Tariffs and evolving trade policies continue to impact sales efforts with customers in China and Canada, although Emerald's overall international exposure is limited to approximately 10% of total revenue. Elevated inflation could lead to increased labor and venue costs that may not be fully passed on to customers, while continued high interest rates could raise financing costs. The company's growth strategy relies heavily on acquisitions, which inherently carry integration risks. Furthermore, expansion into international shows exposes Emerald to foreign currency risk, particularly with the U.K. Pound Sterling.

Conclusion

Emerald Holding, Inc. is executing a compelling strategic transformation, actively reshaping its portfolio and leveraging technology to drive growth and enhance its market position. The company's disciplined approach to portfolio optimization, marked by strategic acquisitions in high-growth sectors like insurtech, luxury travel, and executive summits, is diversifying its revenue streams and strengthening its resilience. Despite facing macroeconomic headwinds and temporary operational challenges, Emerald's financial performance, particularly its Adjusted EBITDA growth and robust liquidity, underscores the effectiveness of its platform strategy and cost management. The ongoing investment in AI-powered solutions and the anticipated resolution of the Las Vegas Convention Center construction are poised to further enhance customer experience and unlock future organic growth. For investors, Emerald represents an opportunity to participate in a company that is strategically adapting to evolving market dynamics, leveraging its core strengths in live events, and positioning itself for sustained, profitable growth through a combination of targeted acquisitions, technological innovation, and operational excellence.