n.42 - February 2012
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Fair financial statement: 20 ml margin
The Fiera Milano SpA shareholders’ assembly shall be held on 15 April (first convocation) or, if necessary, on 16 April, for approval of the financial statement for the year 2009, passed by the Board of directors on 12 March this year. These results reflect a difficult year, even if the exhibition sector was hit by the crisis only in the second half of the year. They are however satisfying, given the criticality of the overall economic picture and even better than those communicated to the market during the year. Revenue stands at 297.1 million euro, with a limited drop of 9.4 million. At 20.4 million, the gross operating margin is higher than expected, even though lower than the 33.1 million in 2008. The net result is slightly negative (-3.7 million) compared to a profits in 2008 of 4.1 million. “The exhibition business”, states CEO Enrico Pazzali, “has inevitably been affected by the serious difficulties of our clients, hit by an almost unprecedented economic crisis. We are however very satisfied that we have managed to limit the effects of the recession: we did not receive cancellations for international exhibitions, on the contrary we housed the only motorcycle show in the world in 2009.We have also posted better financial results than forecasted and in particular a GOM of 20 million, despite extraordinary expenses during the year amounting to over 7 million. This was made possible by promptly adopted countermeasures to support exhibitions”. Fiera Milano in fact implemented, thanks also to support by the Foundation that owns it, a series of actions that took the sting out of the crisis. The foundation has put up 40 million euro over three financial years, including the 16.7 million used in 2009, as contribution to shows, promotion and strategic support activity, participation incentives for exhibitors and visitors (foreign as well as Italian), communication, personnel reorganisation and company rationalisation. Furthermore the holding company has signed a convention with Intesa Sanpaolo Bank for the granting of special financing for companies taking part in exhibitions, fairs and congresses at Fiera Milano, thus limiting the drop in exhibition space (-5.5%) and exhibitors (-4.4%). Meanwhile encouraging signs were shown by visitor numbers at the main events. The Fiera Milano Group has also started wide-scale company reorganisation through merging of its exhibition-organising companies, in November merged into a single company, Fiera Milano Rassegne. This rationalisation is expected to lead to positive results in terms of development of the fair trade business and lowering of structural costs for upcoming years. The publishing division, owned by Fiera Milano Editore has undergone a reshuffle as well, motivated by the crisis in the technical publications sector and advertising sales. As far as concerns expectations for 2010, the events held in the first part of the year showed encouraging signs in terms of visitors. But caution is still the byword as recovery promises to be slow and complex. Forecasts for the moment are a net exhibition surface in 2010 of more than 1.5 million square metres. Despite this, the gross operating margin may be maintained at practically the same levels as 2009, also thanks to the benefits resulting from Group reorganisation and effective cost control. Fiera Milano news n.24 - April 2010   NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE   
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