Fondazione Fiera Milano approves shareholding in Arexpo SPA, by assigning and transferring land needed for Expo 2015 site

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Milan, 30 September 2011 – The Fondazione Fiera Milano Board chaired by Gianpiero Cantoni, having received the thumbs up from the local bodies, first among these the Milan City Council and Lombardy Regional Government, to go ahead with purchase of the land that will host Expo 2015 through the Arexpo joint stock company established on 1 June 2011 based on the Urban Transformation Company model, unanimously resolved to:

1.    approve Fondazione’s shareholding in the Arexpo joint stock company, with a share of approx. 27.7% in the company, while the Milan City Council and Lombardy Regional Government shareholding is to be approx. 69%. Smaller shares will be held by the Milan Provincial Government and the Rho City Council.

2.    approve the assignment  to Arexpo of a part of the land, amounting to  approx. 158,000 sq.m, owned by Fondazione and needed to build the Expo site, at a value of 26 million Euros, equal to 27.7% of the working capital; the assignment is therefore estimated to be approx 164 Euros/sq.m, determined to be adequate by the Internal Revenue Service in a ruling issued on 10 June 2011 and confirmed by the Court of Auditors on 22 July 2011.

3.    approve the sale of a part of the areas not assigned to Arexpo, to the same company, of approx. 404,000 sq.m, for a value of approx. 66.4 million Euros.

In proportion to its shareholding, a Fondazione representative will sit on the company’s board of directors. Governance rules have been prepared for the latter to safeguard the assets of Fondazione. Under the Arexpo  feasibility plan, Fondazione will receive the balance during the 2017 financial period after the sale of the Expo areas by Arexpo.

“This solution –stated Chairman and CEO Gianpiero Cantoni – sustains Fondazione’s interest in safeguarding and enhancing its assets, and offers better spinoffs for the area from Expo 2015 that will benefit the community and the economic and business system, to help drive the economy and employment, because Expo 2015, the Milanese exhibition system and the interests of the entire country are closely linked.”

This meets both the expectations of the public bodies as well as the interests of Fondazione, which aims to safeguard and enhance its assets and to ensure that this initiative is in keeping with its corporate purpose.

The company purpose of AREXPO S.p.A. is to:

  • purchase the Expo site areas from private and public subjects, by also acting through deeds of assignment;
  • place these areas at the disposal of the Expo 2015 S.p.A. company to plan and implement urban transformation projects for the exposition, through right of use or surface rights or any other right that would nonetheless guarantee the purposes for which the areas were made available;
  • monitor, together with the Expo 2015 S.p.A. company, the infrastructuring and transformation of the area to ensure its enhancement and requalification even after the Expo;
  • coordinate, using the technical expertise of the partners, the post-Expo urban plan for the area, by taking account of urban regulations and its functional mix in the changes to the urban planning scheme that were approved under the Framework Agreement;
  • enhance and requalify the exhibition site, by overseeing and coordinating all the post-Expo phases, also by possibly selling, through tender, the company’s real estate after the Expo.