Immaculate Martinez | València (EFE).- It has taken almost a decade to refound Feria Valencia, a centenary institution founded in 1917 that became a public company of the Generalitat, since in 2012 the need to clarify its legal nature and that in In 2015 it was agreed to change its management model.
In all this time, the International Sample Fair of Valencia has been an association of public utility and its own legal personality, and now, after two working legislatures and a long process, it becomes a public company under the name of Societat Valenciana Fira Valencia SA.
The germ of a long process
Talk of the restructuring of the Fair began in 2012, under the mandate of the PP in the Valencian Community, the presidency of the Board of Trustees in the hands of Rita Barberá for her status as mayoress and the businessman Alberto Catalá as president of the executive committee, with the arrival of Enrique Soto from the general secretary of the CEV employers to the general direction of the entity.
After the change of government in the Generalitat with the entry of the Botànic (PSPV and Compromís) and in the City Council with Joan Ribó (Compromís) as the new mayor in 2015, in September of that year a meeting was held between representatives of both governments and of Feria Valencia -already presided over by José Vicente González- in which they agreed to separate it into two entities, one public owner of the assets and debt, and another of commercial exploitation.
debt and creditor
This moment could be considered the starting point of what has since been the restructuring of the entity, which eight years later will belong to the Generalitat, with its debt, its creditors and the entire workforce (110 employees).
A few months after that meeting, the Board of Trustees of the Fair agreed on the roadmap for the restructuring of the entity, which at that time had a debt of 519 million euros and had ended 2015 with losses of 2.5 million and a Investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office into cost overruns of one billion euros in the expansion works of the facility, which was finally shelved as there were no indications of criminal responsibility, although there were various administrative irregularities.
In July 2017, the president of Feria Valencia, the ministers Vicent Soler and Rafael Climent, and the mayor signed the administrative protocol for the restructuring of the entity, even though the assumption of the debt and the modification of the Commercial Law were pending. to enable the management of the fair activity to the Generalitat, as well as the public concession of the City Council on the goods and facilities of the fair.
The first fair in Spain
On May 10 of that year, Feria Valencia celebrated its centenary. On that same date in 1917, the first Sample Fair in Spain was inaugurated in the lobby of the new North Station and in the courtyard of the Imperial Children’s College of San Vicente Ferrer in Valencia, an initiative of the Unión Gremial.
The following year, in 2018, and after ten years of closing negative financial years, the Fair returned to positive operating results. At the beginning of 2020, an agreement of intent was reached whereby the subrogation of the debt of the trade fair entity and shortly after concluded the process for an amount of 227 million euros.
In addition, the City Council approved in February 2021 the agreement with the Generalitat to transfer ownership of Feria Valencia through the free subjective demanial mutation system, through which the Generalitat will maintain fair uses and will deal with land, facilities and buildings for a 50 year period.
Meanwhile, the inactivity caused by the pandemic led the Fair to ask the Generalitat for financial aid to cover losses.
In June two years ago, the Departments of Finance and Economy agreed on the integration of Feria Valencia and the Institución Ferial Alicantina (IFA) in the public sector of the Generalitat through the creation of a mercantile company with two divisions or two companies, this option last one that has been chosen.
The new organizational chart
Since last year the transformation process has accelerated. The new board of directors of Feria Valencia will be chaired by the Minister of Economy and there will be three vice-presidencies, instead of the two initially planned: the first will fall on the mayor of Valencia, the second on Eva Blasco (CEV Valencia) and the third on Alejandro Bermejo (Chamber of Commerce).
The vice-presidencies will be appointed at the meeting of the Board of Directors on Thursday, May 4, which will also ratify the project for the transfer of assets once the deadline for presenting allegations to submit it to the plenary session of the Consell has expired.
On March 9, Feria Valencia approved the last accounts for 2022 with a negative Ebitda of 2.2 million and revenue of 20.2 million, 3.6 times more than in 2021, a year affected by the pandemic. Likewise, 108 million of the debt generated at the beginning of the century by the construction of the enclosure have turned into accounting losses.
This coming Friday, with the foreseeable approval by the Consell of the transfer of assets and liabilities to the new company, Feria Valencia opens a new stage with the consequent block acquisition of the entire assets of the fair institution, by universal succession of its rights and obligations, which entails the dissolution without liquidation.
A process that Fira Alacant (IFA) already closed in January, after the Generalitat assumed all the debt in exchange for keeping the ownership of the pavilions and the land destined for the future expansion of the venue. EFE