Show organiser Pitti Immagine ready to merge with Firenze Fiera

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 31, 2019

Italian trade show organiser Pitti Immagine is keen to join forces with Firenze Fiera. Pitti Immagine, which stages among others the benchmark menswear event Pitti Uomo, Pitti Bimbo and Pitti Filati, has submitted an expression of interest for the Florentine trade show and convention centre. Pitti Immagine wants to broaden its scope and tap the potential synergies between the two organisations.

Firenze Fiera has received several tenders in recent months, notably by trade event and exhibition organisers based in Bologna, Rimini and Milan. But it is chiefly interested in the bid by the Italian trade show giant, as it indicated in a press release a few days ago:

“The board of directors of Firenze Fiera acknowledges the expressions of interest it received for the merger of its business with other industry operators. After careful consideration, it has identified the bid by Pitti Immagine as the one worthy of in-depth evaluation.”

The bid will be analysed and assessed at Firenze Fiera's AGM, scheduled on November 29, when the shareholders will have to decide on “the route to take.”

Firenze Fiera is controlled by a series of local public bodies, with the Tuscany regional authority and the Florence Chamber of Commerce holding the largest stakes, worth respectively 32% and 28.7%. It manages 100,000 m2 of exhibition space, including the Fortezza da Basso, the historic fortress of the city of Florence, which it regularly rents out to Pitti Immagine for its main events, as well as the city's Convention Centre and the Palazzo degli Affari multi-purpose venue. Its annual revenue is in the region of €17 million.

Pitti Immagine has many shareholders in common with Firenze Fiera, through the Centro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana (CFMI), the public/private holding company which controls the show organiser, in turn owned by local institutions and industrial associations. Pitti Immagine’s annual revenue exceeds €30 million.