“We are working on it, but at the moment I can’t say more.” Luca Palermo, CEO of Fiera Milano, does not deny the news published yesterday in the Parma edition of Repubblica.it of a possible integration with Fiere di Parma, the company that organizes (together with Federalimentare) the Cibus food event, in which the Lombard group has been watching with interest for years, with the aim of creating a large Italian fair dedicated to the agri-food supply chain, in synergy with the Milanese exhibition Tuttofood, able to compete with major foreign fairs, from the German Anuga to the French Sial.
The project under study – passed in recent days to the scrutiny of the Assembly of members of Fiere di Parma – would go far beyond the simple collaboration for the coordinated and integrated development of events dedicated to the food sector. This would be a real corporate transaction, on the basis of which Fiera Milano would become a shareholder of Fiere di Parma by subscribing to a dedicated capital increase, through the contribution of assets, or the manifestation of ownership of Tuttofood, in exchange for an equivalent value in shares of Fiere di Parma.
Synergy and integration
The possible synergy and integration between the organizers of the two main Italian food events, which have been talked about for years, would therefore seem to be close. «The parties confirm that a series of in-depth analyzes are underway by the management and their respective advisors, to set up a hypothesis of partnership between Fiera Milano and Fiere di Parma – reads a joint note released yesterday evening by the two companies -. In this regard, it should be noted that at present the potential transaction has not yet been the subject of an approval resolution by the bodies of the respective companies as the appropriate checks are still in progress regarding the feasibility of the same “. Negotiations are underway, therefore, but there are still some details to be defined, and not insignificant, starting with the value to be attributed to Tuttofood, one of the flagships of Fiera Milano, which in the last pre-Covid edition ( 2019) had registered over 3 thousand exhibitors (84% Italian) and 82,500 visitors (23% from 143 countries). Numbers similar to those of Cibus, which in the last pre-pandemic edition saw 3,100 exhibitors and 82,000 visitors.
Change of governance
Another delicate issue, as reported by Sole 24 Ore, would concern the new governance that Fiere di Parma should assume following the entry of the new shareholder, through a revision of the statute. Currently, the company structure sees Crédit Agricole Italia as major shareholders, with 34.42%, the Municipality and the Province of Parma, each with 19.58%, the local Chamber of Commerce, with 12%, the Union Parma of the Industrialists with 8.44% and the Emilia-Romagna Region with 5.08%. It is easy to assume that, in exchange for the sale of one of its flagship events, Fiera Milano could not be satisfied with a seat in the council.
Additions imposed by the pandemic
The discussion, therefore, is still open. However, the operation would be in line with the ambitions expressed several times by the CEO of Fiera Milano (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 3 December 2021), according to which the pandemic has made those processes of alliances and integrations between neighborhoods even more urgent. exhibitions that have been discussed for years, with the aim of organizing events with an international vocation in Italy, capable of becoming reference points for the industrial chains in which Italy is a leader, but also of attracting operators from abroad and competing with the major global trade fairs. Starting with food: although our country is one of the world‘s largest producers and exporters in this sector, the most important exhibition hubs (also for Italian companies) are located in Cologne (Anuga) and Paris (Sial). The hypothesis of integrating the two main Italian exhibitions, Tuttofood and Cibus, under a single direction, would therefore go in the desired direction. But the possible synergies would not stop there: according to rumors, the agreement initially aimed at the development of alliances in the food sector, would not exclude further alliances in the future also in other sectors in which both exhibition centers are reference.