FIERAVICOLA MOVES FROM FORLI´ TO RIMINI

President Lorenzo Cagnoni announced the conclusion of the operation during the Italian Exhibition Group Board Meeting.
A newco for the international poultry exhibition, frequency changed from biennial to annual and simultaneous staging with Macfrut


Rimini, 13th November 2019 – Fieravicola - international poultry exhibition – leaves its location at Fiera di Forlì and moves to that of the Rimini Expo Centre, where it will be held in 2021 simultaneously with Macfrut and, from that date, will become an annual event.

The Board of Directors of Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) accepted with complete consent the conclusion of the project announced at today´s meeting by president Lorenzo Cagnoni.
In fact, in recent weeks, both the Board of Directors of Fiera di Forlì and Forlì´s Town Council (which is Fiera di Forlì´s majority shareholder) had approved the project for a change of ownership and venue. The formalization of the agreement will naturally be subject to due diligence.

Fieravicola and Rimini will be able to count not only on a modern, practical expo hub, complete with an on-site railway station on the Milan – Bari line, but also on the fact that it will be held simultaneously with Macfrut, the international trade fair of the fruit and vegetable sector that Cesena Fiera moved to Rimini five years ago.

Cagnoni says, ´I wish to stress that this is not merely a ritual agreement between trade fairs, but an effective high-level operation for the issues it involves. First and foremost, that of a region, Emilia–Romagna, in which it is possible to concretely interact to form a system entirely in favour of the market and the local area, without harmful parochial partiality. The project with Forlì is not just an operation for transferring an expo from one venue to another, from one city to another, tout-court. But specific reasons and scenarios of economic development are implicit for all the key players.´

The agreement between IEG and Fiera di Forlì foresees the formation of a newco, in which IEG has 51% of the shares, Fiera Forlì 35%, Cesena Fiera 10% and Assoavi and Unaitalia each has 2%.

The president of IEG continues, ´It is therefore a decision that is the result of strategic assessment and planning, during which every aspect of the possible advantages for the various subjects involved - exhibitions, local territories and the market - has been carefully examined, achieving formal and substantial clarity.´

The buy-out of Fieravicola further expands the portfolio of IEG, which confirms its leading role in the agri-food sector, in which it has been a key player for some time with SIGEP, Beer &Food Attraction, FoodWell, Foodnova, Macfrut, Cosmofood in Vicenza and Golositalia in Montichiari.

´The roles in this agreement´, concludes Lorenzo Cagnoni, ´are clear and equal. The strategic policies of the exhibition will be established by the newco in which IEG is the majority shareholder, operating management will be handled by Cesena Fiera with the great advantage of synergies shared with those of the Macfrut expo. While the technical and cultural contents, the conferences and in-depth market coverage will be located in Forlì, which has an expertise in this sector that dates back to 1961. In fact, intensive poultry breeding laid the foundations for what had already become a feather in the cap of the agri-food market in Italy in the fifties. Through time, this led to the foundation of a supply chain that was well-constructed as far as both technology and products were concerned in which the area´s companies became protagonists at international level.´


FOCUS ON ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA

Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), listed on the Mercato Telematico Azionario, the main equities market organized and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A. (Italy´s stock exchange), is the Italian leader in the organization of trade expos and one of the main players in Europe in the expo and conference sector with its venues in Rimini and Vicenza. The IEG Group stands out for the organization of events in five categories: Food & Beverage; Jewellery & Fashion; Tourism, Hospitality and Lifestyle; Wellness, Sport and Leisure; Green & Technology. In recent years, IEG has launched an important process of foreign expansion, also by means of joint ventures inked with local players (e.g. in the United States, Arab Emirates and China). IEG ended the 2018 financial year with a total consolidated turnover of 159.7 million euros, an EBITDA of 30.8 million and a net consolidated profit of 10.8 million euros. In 2018, IEG held an overall total of 53 exhibitions organized or hosted and 181 conferences events in its Rimini and Vicenza expo and conference venues. www.iegexpo.it

This press release contains forecast elements and estimates that reflect the management´s current opinions (´forward-looking statements´), particularly regarding future management performance, realization of investments, cash flow trends and the evolution of the financial structure. For their very nature, forward-looking statements have a component of risk and uncertainty, as they depend on the occurrence of future events. The effective results may differ (even significantly) from those announced, due to numerous factors, including, only by way of example: food service market and tourist flow trends in Italy, gold and jewellery market trends, green economy market trends; the evolution of raw material prices; general macroeconomic conditions; geopolitical factors and evolutions in the legislative framework. Moreover, the information contained in this release, does not claim to be complete, and has not been verified by independent third parties. Forecasts, estimates and objectives contained herein are based on the information available to the Company as at the date of this release.


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