FONDAZIONE FIERA MILANO TRANSFERS MAJOR EXHIBITION TRADEMARKS TO ITS FIERA MILANO SUBSIDIARY WITH A RESERVED CAPITAL INCREASE OF €62 MILLION
The Fondazione Fiera Milano Board of Directors has approved the participation in the reserved capital increase for Fiera Milano by €62 million with the issue of 8,255,659 ordinary shares with a unit value of €7.51 (rounded value) to be paid through the transfer of its exhibition trademark business
Milan, 26 May 2008. The Fiera Milano Fondazione Board of Directors met today under the chairmanship of Luigi Roth and approved the participation in the reserved capital increase decided today by Fiera Milano SpA, and convened an Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting on 14 July 2008, in the first convocation, and the second taking place on 16 July to vote on the share capital increase.
The Fiera Milano SpA Shareholders' Meeting will have to vote over the issuing of 8,255,659 new ordinary shares, regular dividend rights from 1 January 2008, with a nominal value of €1 and a share premium of €6.51 (rounded value) per share, for an equivalent total capital increase of €62 million.
The increase in share capital as a result of the transfer will be subject to approval from the Shareholders' Meeting and will be reserved to Fondazione Fiera Milano (in accordance with Article 2441, paragraph 4, first sentence, of the [Italian] Civil Code) and therefore without option rights for Shareholders.
The branch of the company being transferred consists of 39 exhibition trademarks; the most relevant being the trademarks Macef (homeware products), MiArt (arts sector), Tuttofood (agri-food sector) and Lift (lift sector).
As a result of the reserved capital increase, the equity interest held by Fondazione in Fiera Milano SpA will increase from 52.82% to 62.06%.
For the valuation of the trademarks branch the Fondazione’s Board of Directors retained Prof. Guatri as an advisor. The company branch whose value ranges between €61.3 million and €67.7 million had been identified and disclosed to the market, has been definitively valued at €62 million. This also matches the value estimated by the expert appointed by the Court of Milan, in accordance with Article 2343 of the [Italian] Civil Code.
However, as regards the valuation of the Fiera Milano Group for the capital increase, the Fondazione’s Board of Directors has taken note and agreed the value decided on by the Fiera Milano SpA Board of Directors: €7.51 (rounded) per share as the unit value, including the share premium.
The suitability of the issue price of the new shares will be assessed, in accordance with Article 158 of the Finance Act, by Fiera Milano SpA's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers SpA.
It is proposed that the capital increase should take place before 31 August 2008.
Luigi Roth stated: “The transfer of our trademarks to Fiera Milano SpA as expected and illustrated to the market on previous occasions will bring significant advantages to Fiera Milano SpA such as lower costs as a result of the elimination of annual royalties (€12.5 million for Macef, for example). Furthermore, Fiera Milano SpA will be able to have full management of the value chain of the exhibitions to which the trademarks refer, with a more effective focus on strategy, communication and their brand management, also in relation to their development on foreign markets. The acquisition of the trademarks branch through a reserved capital increase allows Fiera Milano SpA to avoid substantial cash outlays by allocating these resources to other investments and achieving greater flexibility for growth for external lines.