In view of the worldwide economic crisis and the fact that the event marketing business is directly dependent on the economic climate, the MCH Group has reason to be particularly pleased with the 2009 financial year. It has been able to maintain, or even strengthen, its market position in the different business fields and, despite extremely difficult framework conditions, has achieved a gratifying, better-than-expected result.

With consolidated operating income of CHF 283.2 million (previous year CHF 333.3 million), the MCH Group achieved an EBITDA of CHF 61.1 million (CHF 71.2 million) and a profit of CHF 19.9 million (CHF 26.9 million) in 2009. Investments totalling CHF 22.7 million (CHF 49.4 million) were made.

The consolidated total assets at the end of the year under review were CHF 541.0 million, with borrowed capital of CHF 317.1 million and equity capital of CHF 223.9 million. The equity ratio is 41.4% (previous year: 40.7%). The price of the MCH Group’s registered shares rose by 14.5% from CHF 34.50 to CHF 39.50 in the course of the year under review. A proposal will be submitted to the General Meeting on 17 May 2010 to approve the payment of a dividend of 5%.

Varying impact of the recession

The economic recession affected the individual business fields to differing extents:

MCH Exhibitions: Income from the group’s own exhibitions was some 6% down on the previous year. Part of the decline is due to the fact that it was a year with a less busy exhibition schedule on account of the individual exhibition rotas. The consumer exhibitions were generally less affected by the economic crisis than the specialist trade fairs, although both Ineltec and Igeho, held in the autumn of 2009, produced gratifying results. The world shows of BASELWORLD, Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach proved to be highly successful even in a difficult environment and were able to expand their leading international position still further.

MCH Infrastructure: In the rental business, the income situation for third-party exhibitions remained unchanged compared with the previous year. The 18% drop in income in this business field is due to correspondingly fewer events being staged. In particular, there was no “EURO 08” effect in 2009, of course.

MCH Event Services: The fields of event management, stand construction and event technology were the ones hardest hit and most directly affected by the economic crisis. This led to a large number of events being cancelled or being run on reduced budgets. The crisis in the automotive industry, in particular, where a large number of exhibitions and individual exhibition stands were cancelled, had a major impact on our service business. Income declined by approximately 30% in this business field compared with the previous year.

The financing concept for the “Basel Exhibition Center” modernisation project worked out jointly with the Cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft and Zurich, and also the City of Zurich, makes provision for the MCH Group to contribute CHF 40 million of its own capital to the project. This necessitates the issue of new shares. The General Meeting of 8 May 2008 had authorised the Board of Directors to proceed to a corresponding increase in the share capital by 8 May 2010 at the latest. This opportunity to increase the share capital was not taken up. This was due to the need for the “Basel Exhibition Center” project to be optimised and for its completion to be postponed for a year, until 2013, and also to the development in the stock-market price since May 2008.

The Board of Directors will thus submit a renewed application to the General Meeting of 17 May 2010 for the creation of approved capital. This will be limited to a period of two years again. In order to create CHF 40 million own capital, the Board of Directors will be requesting authorisation to issue a maximum of 2,000,000 new registered shares with a face value of CHF 10 each and thus increase the capital by a maximum of CHF 20 million. The Board of Directors is to be authorised to proceed with the capital increase at an appropriate point in time within the next two years.

The Board of Directors will also submit a motion to the General Meeting of 17 May 2010 proposing that Dr. Karin Lenzlinger Diedenhofen, Werner Helfenstein and Dr. Ulrich Vischer be confirmed in office for a further term of two years as members of the Board of Directors of the MCH Group Ltd. 

In May 2009, the MCH Group Ltd. and the operating company and owner of the exhibition and congress centre in Lausanne – Beaulieu Exploitation SA and the Fondation de Beaulieu – signed a declaration of intent for the MCH Group Ltd. to acquire at least a two-thirds majority of the shares of Beaulieu Exploitation SA. On the basis of the framework agreement signed in December 2009, the MCH Group Ltd. is submitting a corresponding purchase offer to the shareholders of Beaulieu Exploitation SA. The offer price is CHF 190 per share, with the offer period running from 16 March to 16 April 2010. The purchase offer is linked to the condition that at least 66.6% of the shares be tendered to the MCH Group Ltd., which corresponds to 28,676 shares.