Trade Fair, Sign-It agree to join forces

Fairs and Exhibitors Ltd, organisers of the International Fair of Malta at Naxxar, and Sign-It are to form a new company which will ensure a short-term and long-term future for the trade fair.

The company will be called Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre Ltd. Fairs and Exhibitors Ltd is owned by Malta Trade Fairs Corporation.

The lease at Naxxar expires in August 2007, which will leave the international trade fair homeless after next July's edition. Attempts to buy land elsewhere have been unsuccessful.

The government had also made it clear that it felt there was only scope for one fair and conference centre and is drawing up a call for tenders for a site at Ta' Qali, identified within the action plan for that area. This made the corporation and Sign-It, a company which handles logistics for conferences, potential rivals.

However, the six representatives of the present and past exhibitors on the corporation board have been against the proposal from day one and boycotted a meeting last Tuesday at which the remaining eight members of the board unanimously ratified the memorandum of understanding for the setting up of the new company.

All that now remains is for the new company to be registered in the coming days.

"This was not a shotgun wedding. It was a straightforward business decision," Federation of Industry president Adrian Bajada said.

"I can honestly say that there are no winners or losers. This is a fair deal.

"The Trade Fair has to move from Naxxar and the representatives of the four constituted bodies on the board - the Federation of Industry, the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise (GRTU) and the Malta Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce - have been trying for hours on end to explain our strategy to the exhibitors. We delayed the whole deal by months because we wanted to try to reach consensus.

"But at the end of the day, business must prevail even if a minority of the board do not agree. The options they suggested did not work out for one reason or another. The reality is that we have found no other suitable land outside the development zone - land in the development zone would cost around Lm30 million - and since ODZ land would require justification before a permit can be issued, we have to respect government policy.

"The government said it would issue a tender for Ta' Qali, which left us with the option of competing with Sign-It - or joining forces. The constituted bodies felt that joining forces made sense strategically as it would bring together our expertise in fairs and Sign-It's expertise in conferences, making the sum greater that the parts."

The representatives of the constituted bodies expressed disappointment that the exhibitors' representatives had not bowed to the majority decision. GRTU representative Charles Busuttil said the board had taken many of the exhibitors' concerns on board and had managed to negotiate a much better deal. The new company will, in fact, be 75 per cent owned by Fairs and Exhibitors Ltd and 25 per cent by Sign-It.

Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre Ltd will set up a separate company with Sign-It to handle the international side of the business.

"The concept of the fair has to change. It has been a bazaar type of event for years and it is obvious that the new set-up will be different," Mr Bajada said.

The board appointed Mr Bajada and Chamber of Commerce representative Peter Grima to negotiate the deal. This was signed two weeks ago and then presented for board ratification last Tuesday but none of the six representatives turned up. The memorandum and articles of the new company are now being scrutinised by the corporation's lawyer and auditor before the new company is registered.

"I did not feel it would be prudent to make this public until everything was signed and ratified, until the M&As were drawn up and the financing arrangements were in place," Mr Bajada said.

The new company will only take over the tangible assets of the two entities - not any liabilities or debts.

It will have six directors appointed by Fairs and Exhibitors Ltd (one of whom is a government appointee) and two appointed by Sign-It.

The new company will also purchase the tensioned fabric structure - or tent - that Sign-It had sourced in the UK last year from Arena. The tent will be shipped later this month and will provide a temporary home for fairs and conferences until the permanent premises are built in Ta' Qali, which would take two to three years once the winning tender is selected.

The employees of both entities will be transferred to the new company under the same working conditions.

"The only question mark now is what happens if the new company does not win the tender, should someone else come along. In that case, we would set up elsewhere. There is an international market for what we can offer," Mr Bajada said.