Austrians to give up purchase of Belgrade Trade Fair

- Austrian company "Reed Exhibitions Messe Wien", which was seriously interested in privatization of the Belgrade Trade Fair, has decided to freeze that project – said Matias Limbek, the CEO of that company.

"The moment is extremely infavorable. The countries of Eastern Europe are going to feel the economic crisis much stronger than it was assumed earlier", Limbek told Viennese economic daily newspaper "Virtšaftsblat".

He said that the situation was such that nobody can say when the investment in that project would be returned, which was the reason why that Austrian company would not take part in the privatization of the Belgrade Trade Fair for the time being. According to earlier announcements, the Viennese company intended to invest up to 300m EUR in Belgrade.

Limbek said that the takeover of the Belgrade Trade Fair was not the only project deleted from the list of projected investments. He pointed out that “all new investments will be frozen this year”. Financial turnover of this company in two locations in Austria – Vienna and Salzburg, amounted to 78m EUR in 2008, 2.5m EUR more than in 2007.