Schall they or shan't they?
A tricky business, private exhibition organiser Schall's planned move from Sinsheim to Stuttgart. Meanwhile it is no longer so certain which exhibitions will actually arrive there.
That was a widely noted surprise deal that Ulrich Kromer, chief executive of Stuttgart exhibition company, announced mid-June last year to the specialist community: beginning in 2007, private expo organisers P.E. Schall, Frickenhausen, would gradually move their entire portfolio of exhibitions from Messe Sinsheim to the exhibition facility in the state capital of Baden-Württemberg. But meanwhile it is no longer so certain which exhibitions will actually show up at Stuttgart exhibition centre.
The problem is that Paul Eberhard Schall has a non-terminable contract in Sinsheim which stipulates that his ten fairs must stay there until 2007. At least, that is what Lorenz Glück, legal counsel and exhibition facility manager at the Layher group of companies, which owns a majority stake in the exhibition halls in Sinsheim, maintains. And Glück has said that Layher will insist on performance of the contract - unless another solution can be reached with Schall and Stuttgarter Messe- und Kongressgesellschaft (SMK). Sinsheim has a very clear idea of what this solution should be: Next year they want to see only Schall's three international fairs, Motek, Control and Blechexpo, depart for Stuttgart, while the remaining shows - including Faszination Modellbau or Car&Sound, for example - stay put. But since the remaining regional shows can hardly be expected to earn the EUR 2 million agreed annual rental, Layher is prepared to accommodate the Schall group by reducing the rent. In return, though, the hall owners are demanding from Schall the greater part of the compensation that SMK is supposed to pay the businessman. To Layher's way of thinking, 6 million of the altogether EUR 7.25 million promised would compensate it for the loss of rent and the remaining EUR 1.25 million would go to Deutsche Messe AG. That is equivalent to the amount of the loan that the exhibition company in Hanover granted Schall to expand the facility in Sinsheim, on condition that Motek remained there. Stuttgart, though, is set to repulse Layher's advance. "We will not agree to a solution of this kind," SMK spokesman Thomas Brandl insists, making it quite clear that the relocation of three rather than the ten fairs agreed is unacceptable for his company - particularly since SMK's supervisory board expressly ruled out any renegotiation once the contract with Schall had been signed.
So it looks as if the dispute over the planned move will continue before the courts. At any rate, Lorenz Glück has threatened a lawsuit against Messe Stuttgart if the exhibition company does not agree to the new plans. Layher see justification for a legal tussle in an expert opinion commissioned from a professor in Berlin, who has identified an infringement of section 4, paragraph 10 of the German law against unfair competition. The expert speaks of "piracy by enticement to breach of contract", maintaining that the lease concluded between the Schall group and Messe Stuttgart is therefore in breach of fair competition rules and unsustainable under antitrust legislation. Messe Stuttgart is unfazed by the prospect of a court case. "The action would come to nothing, because there is nothing incriminating to go on," Thomas Brandl says, as revealed in a legal examination commissioned by SMK. And so Stuttgart continues to assume that Schall will move his entire portfolio as agreed to the new SMK halls completed by that time. It is still not clear what part the political powers-that-be play in this dispute. Enlightenment is expected from a commission of inquiry initiated by the opposition in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament to find out just how far the state government - which is after all the major shareholder in Messe Stuttgart - was involved in the Schall coup. "The state is responsible not only for Stuttgart, it also has a duty towards Sinsheim," Lorenz Glück says. However, he is sceptical of the government's willingness to come to Messe Sinsheim's rescue. Carsten Dierig
m+a report Nr.1 / 2006 vom 13.02.2006
m+a report vom 13. Februar 2006