28 January 2008 - Gide Loyrette Nouel, legal counsel to the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry in negotiations of a merger between CCIP and Unibail- Rodamco:

Gide Loyrette Nouel advised the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (“CCIP”) on the merger of its convention-exhibition business with that of Unibail-Rodamco and the launch of a new extension of the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. The Gide Loyrette Nouel legal team advising the CCIP for the purposes of this transaction included Serge Tatar, Nicolas Jüllich, Lucille Gaillard and Christine Miles (on merger, acquisition and privatisation issues), Olivier Dauchez and Guillaume Jolly (on structuring and taxation), and Frédéric Nouel and Arnaud Moutet (on the real estate aspects).

The transaction, announced today in the presence of Christine Lagarde, Economy, Finance and Employment Minster, and Luc Chatel, Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs and Tourism, will culminate in the effective merger of the parties’ conventions-exhibitions business, both in terms of venue ownership and management and event organisation.

The agreement marks completion of the merger process initiated last year, sanctioned by the Economy, Finance and Employment Ministry following approval by the French Competition Authority (Official Bulletin dated 6 December 2007), published in the Official Journal of 25 January 2008.

The merger will result, among other things, in the creation of:

	Viparis, European and world conventions-exhibitions market leader, owning 9 venues in the Paris area, all benefitting from a unique and complementary location providing a total of 575,000 sq. m. of dedicated exhibition space. The management of these venues will be brought together into two companies, owned in equal shares by the CCIP and Unibail-Rodamco.

	one of the leading event organisers in France: this transaction, which will also merge Comexpo and Exposium, will create a leading market entity in France with a portfolio of more than 180 conventions and exhibitions servicing 35,000 exhibitors and 4.1 million visitors every year.

The merger will go a long way to making France an even more attractive destination for conventions and exhibitions by providing additional capacity and a new range of convention-exhibition services. The objective was to increase and improve the resources available in Paris and the Ile de France Region long term to win out over European and international competition in this sector and to achieve the government’s ambition of developing a conventions and exhibitions centre of excellence.

One of the first manifestations of the merger will be the official launch of the extension to the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre, involving the construction of a new 36,000 sq. m. exhibition hall, scheduled to be operational in 2010.