Charterhouse’s Acquisition of Stake in Comexposium
Nicolas Durand, Financial Adviser to Comexposium
Frederic Jungels, Legal Adviser to the Comexposium
French commercial real estate company Unibail-Rodamco SE (UNBLF.PK, UNRDY.PK) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris Ile-de-France or CCIR have enter into an agreement with Charterhouse, by which Charterhouse has offered to acquire Unibail-Rodamco’s 50% stake in Comexposium. This offer values Comexposium at 550 million euros.
Early in 2008, Unibail-Rodamco and the CCIR merged their Convention & Exhibition activities into two entities: Viparis, in charge of managing the venues, and Comexposium, in charge of the events organization business. Comexposium brought together Exposium, the events entity of Unibail-Rodamco, and Comexpo, the events organization business of the CCIR.
Comexposium is now the 4th largest exhibition organizer worldwide with more than 135 exhibitions, representing 38 000 exhibitors and 3.5 Mn visitors per year.
In addition, Unibail-Rodamco and the CCIR have granted Charterhouse an exclusivity period. During this period, the work councils of the Group and Comexposium will be consulted before the signing of the final and binding documentation expected in the second-quarter of 2015.
