Re Agreement
09 Diciembre 2003 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:0132T
Expomedia Group PLC
09 December 2003
Management agreement for India
Expomedia Group plc ("Expomedia" or "The Company") announces that it has entered
into an agreement with Rodemadan India Limited ("Rodemadan") to manage a new
multi-functional exhibition centre currently being constructed in Noida, New
Delhi.
The new centre, Noida International Expocentre has been developed to provide
state of the art facilities to local and international exhibition organisers. It
will consist of approximately 10,000 square meters (approximately 100,000 square
feet) of exhibition space which is currently 80 per cent. complete and is due to
open in June 2004.
Under the terms of the agreement Rodemadan will pay all of the costs of
operating the venue. Expomedia will bear no cost or financial risk from its
management of the centre and will receive a management fee of 10 per cent. of
revenues for its services. The agreement will be for an initial 12 months and
will be automatically renewed at the end of each 12 month period for a further
12 months unless terminated by either party. Dr. Barbara Hanlon, an executive
director of the Company, who was responsible for the successful launch of the
Warsaw International Expocentre has been given responsibility for Expomedia
activities in India.
Rodemadan is a company controlled by entities associated with Roger Shashoua,
Chairman of Expomedia and Nicholas Berry, a non-executive director of Expomedia.
Together Roger Shashoua and Nicholas Berry own 100 per cent. of Rodemadan.
Roger Shashoua has a beneficial interest in 33.7 per cent. and Nicholas Berry
has an in interest in 17.7 per cent. of the issued share capital of
Expomedia. Therefore, for the purposes of Rule 12 of the AIM Rules the
agreement with Rodemadan is being treated as a related party transaction. The
Directors (with the exception of Roger Shashoua and Nicholas Berry), having
consulted with Durlacher, the Company's Nominated Adviser consider the terms of
the agreement with Rodemadan to be fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's
shareholders are concerned.
Roger Shashoua has had a long association with the exhibition industry in India,
and this follows his successful ventures in China and Russia and the CIS over
the last 30 years. The original investment in the Noida property was made in
1998 in partnership with local investors prior to the founding of Expomedia.
Nicholas Berry became a non-executive director of Expomedia in 2002.
This agreement with Rodemadan makes it possible for the Company to enter into
the Indian exhibition market and organise a series of exhibitions, including
several in co-operation with its international partners. The Company has
established a wholly owned subsidiary in India, International Exhibition
Managers Ltd to organise the exhibitions and is currently planning a schedule of
exhibitions. In addition we expect that a number of our agreements with our
international partners will be extended to include India, and as we announced
previously we have also agreed to launch a series of international conferences
in India in co-operation with Informa Group plc. The Company regards the Indian
market as one of significant potential with a population of over 1 billion
people. and GDP growth of 7per cent per annum. The Directors of Expomedia
believe that the Indian exhibition industry is very under developed, due partly
to a shortage of suitable exhibition space, perfectly timing the Company's entry
into this rapidly expanding market.
Dr. Barbara Hanlon commented: "We believe that the Noida International
Exhibition Centre will be the catalyst for a huge growth of exhibitions in India
. We have always believed in the enormous possibilities of the Indian market,
the second fastest growing economy after China and we are pleased that Expomedia
will be able to enter this important market".
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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