Less than two years ago we announced that a �new Koelnmesse� was in the making, and we have kept our word. As promised, the upcoming imm cologne will take place at an exhibition venue that has no equal in Europe in terms of its layout, location, accessibility, equipment and range of services. What we will be offering our exhibitors and visitors in the future is a quantum leap in quality. The Rhineside Halls certainly had their charm, which will of course be appreciated by their new occupants as well. But they were a factor that limited our competitiveness as a trade fair organizer. Another limiting factor was the exhibition grounds, where the combination of railroad tracks, freight transport companies and public roads meant that even customers who had been coming to our events for many years sometimes had difficulty finding their way around.

In his address, Mayor Schramma referred to some of the headlines we�ve been seeing in recent months. Like him, I also believe that the unique possibilities the new halls offer to our exhibitors and visitors should not be obscured by discussions of financial matters. So I�d like to emphasize once again that the constellation we have arrived at has had very beneficial effects. It has enabled us to complete the new exhibition grounds on schedule and ensured that RTL will remain in Cologne. We have sold the Rhineside Halls for a good price. This amount includes not only the cash value of the halls but also the Cologne city government�s risk underwriting of the financing burden.

But in spite of all the praise we are receiving for the new Koelnmesse, I must point out that the star of this show is not the exhibition grounds � it�s our customers. We can be successful in this tough competitive environment only if we satisfy our customers and enhance customer loyalty. The new Northern Halls and the renovated Southern Halls are only one component of this strategy, although of course they are a very important one.

Now I�d like to tell you something about the other components as well. Last year we worked hard to implement our Master Plan, but that�s not all. I�d like to summarize what we�ve accomplished in our most important areas of activity, which are already familiar to you as our 4i strategy: infrastructure, innovation, information technology and internationalization.

The Chairman of our Supervisory Board has already given you an overview of the improvements we�ve made to our infrastructure. I�d only like to add that we�re doing more than just building new, functional halls. We are taking this opportunity to equip them with new hardware and customized software. In fact, we�re in the midst of a comprehensive upgrading of our entire range of services. The many individual components of this upgrading combine to form a complex network.

• Our visitor guidance and traffic management measures include a new, dynamic signposting system throughout the exhibition grounds that can be altered within minutes. There will be fewer signs, but they�ll be located in the right places, and we�ll be using state-of-the-art technologies. For example, we�ll be installing large flat screens in 28 locations so that our trade fair participants will always have the latest information available. We�re adding another stop, located under the Zoobr�cke, to our shuttle service. As a result, we will be able to offer visitors, for the first time ever, a full-circuit bus route that will make it much easier for them to reach their destinations on the exhibition grounds.
• We�re installing additional ticket offices and optimizing their layout in order to shorten visitors� waiting times.
• We�ve reorganized our catering services. One of the innovations is a free-flow concept that offers food service on free-standing islands so that visitors don�t have to stand in line. In the future there will also be more small snack bars in the halls, where visitors can indulge in delicious refreshments between appointments.
• And because the exhibition grounds are now continuous, we will be completely reorganizing our logistics. Among other things, we�ll be centrally managing the truck traffic for stand construction and dismantling from one of the major parking lots and dispatching the trucks to the halls as spaces become available.

None of these measures, taken individually, is spectacular, but taken together they will result in significant improvements. All of them serve a single goal: enabling us to send our customers home with the knowledge that here they�ve been well taken care of. After all, that�s the way � and perhaps the only way � to make sure they�ll come back.

All of you have reported on the ways we�ve expressed our lasting commitment to innovation. We�ve announced a whole series of new events. The three premieres we celebrated in 2005 will be followed by five more in the coming year. Since the beginning of 2004 we have added 28 new trade fairs in Germany and abroad to our portfolio. These include events with newly developed formats, such as our congress trade fairs Organic Trade Forum and Chilled Food. We have bought three other events with growth potential and a strong affinity with Cologne � DMS, ecclesia and InterKarneval � from their previous organizers. We have succeeded in acquiring important trade fairs such as INTERMOT COLOGNE. Through Pacovent, ProSweets and PowerGen Europe we are boosting the number of trade fairs for investment goods that are held in Cologne. We have continued to expand the event portfolio we offer our partner sectors by developing our own events, purchasing events or enticing them away from other locations, and expanding the segments served by our existing trade fairs, as well as continually enhancing our trade fairs in Cologne. A key incentive for customer loyalty is our ability to offer the entire spectrum of products that a whole sector is interested in.

The use of information technology at Koelnmesse is being enhanced on two levels. On one level, we are improving our own processes with the help of SAP systems. Our ultimate aim is to consolidate all the processes relevant to our customers so that all of our customer-relevant information can be accessed and utilized at a single location. In addition, we have further expanded the spectrum of our online services, which now range from electronic visitor registration and ticket sales at the E-Shop, through our hotel service, all the way to virtual stand construction and matchmaking. In 2006 we�ll be introducing comprehensive W-LAN access throughout our exhibition grounds.

Our all-out effort to internationalize our business operations has resulted, for example, in the fact that well over ten percent of our employees are working in our subsidiaries abroad. And there�s a good reason for that. Some of the Asian countries are developing into strong trade fair locations. Thanks to its booming production and strong economic growth, China remains a promising area of future expansion for the trade fair sector. And of course, the sector is also continuing to keep an eye on eastern and southern Europe. In Italy and Spain, for example, the trade fair business is currently receiving a great deal of government attention and support.

The fierce competition between individual trade fair companies continues undiminished, not only in Germany and Europe but across the globe. Koelnmesse occupies one of the leading positions in this �world league.� Our concept, which calls for using our globally recognized brands such as Anuga, ISM and Practical World to build up an international network of events, is bearing fruit. We are bringing along the sector-relevant expertise we�ve acquired in Cologne, establishing subsidiaries in growing markets, and cooperating with local sector associations and trade fair organizers. Using this strategy, we�ve expanded our portfolio of trade fairs abroad to a total of 19 events. The new events we�ll be seeing in 2006 include International FoodTec China, Practical World Hong Kong, interior design asia in association with the TIFF furniture fair in Thailand, World of Food China, and Photo Imaging Expo in Tokyo. We believe we�ve scored a major success by becoming the organizers of an imaging trade fair in the very heartland of photography.

But now let�s turn our attention to the list of our accomplishments in 2005, which we will of course present to you in greater detail at our traditional summer press conference. There�s been a healthy increase in the number of events we�ve organized as well as our exhibitor and visitor figures � but that�s not all. We have also exceeded our turnover target, and we expect the Group to post �181.5 million for the year as a whole. That�s a considerable increase on 2004 � but, as always, the different scheduling cycles of our trade fairs make it difficult to compare individual business years. Koelnmesse GmbH was responsible for �124 million of our total turnover for 2005. We expect to post a loss of approximately �6 million in our annual financial statement. This result is better than we planned, and is essentially due to the cost of implementing our Master Plan. Our investments amounted to approximately �25 million, and amortization totaled �18 million.

Koelnmesse Service GmbH, whose diverse activities I�ve already sketched out for you, posted a pre-consolidation turnover of approximately �27 million. Its responsibilities have become much more comprehensive. To put it simply, it is responsible for the �perceived� quality of our trade fairs, and it�s this perception that makes all the difference when our exhibitors and visitors are deciding whether to return to Cologne. That�s why we ultimately combined all of our services, as well as their management, at Koelnmesse Service GmbH. This means that in the future there will be only one contact partner for advice and assistance � whatever visitors� needs might be during their stay, and whatever an exhibitor might require between stand construction and dismantling. But the opening of the restructured exhibition grounds won�t be the end of new developments in 2006. We are working on a �corporate fashion� concept that calls for coordinated outfits for the employees of our service companies � a measure that will make it easy for our customers to find the assistance they need. We will also be conducting special training courses for our service personnel, who are responsible for bringing our concept of customer service to life. In 2005 we entrusted our catering partner Bayer Gastronomie with the task of providing services for the new halls and the rest of the exhibition grounds, including the employee cafeteria, which will open tomorrow.

In 2005, Koelnmesse Ausstellungen GmbH held 25 guest events and five trade fairs of its own, which were open to the public. Its program for 2006 calls for 26 guest events and six trade fairs of its own. That makes Cologne the German city with the largest annual number of guest trade fairs. As a rule, the trade fairs and exhibitions held here on behalf of external organizers are highly innovative sector events with tremendous potential for growth, and they help us greatly to utilize our hall capacity efficiently. For example, in February six trade fairs, including both guest events and our own trade fairs, will be running in parallel on the Cologne exhibition grounds. What�s more, guest events offer new sectors an initial contact with Cologne as a trade fair location � a contact that can form the basis of long-term cooperation and possibly lead to other sector events in the future. Koelnmesse Ausstellungen GmbH posted a turnover of approximately �10 million in 2005.

For Koelnmesse International GmbH, 2005 was a successful business year which it concluded with positive results. Together with its subsidiaries abroad, it posted a total turnover of �35 million and considerably expanded its international sales network. In the future, our events abroad will be organized by nine subsidiaries. Last summer we opened Koelnmesse BV in Rotterdam, which serves as our headquarters for the Benelux region. In December we established a Koelnmesse company in Tokyo and acquired majority ownership of a trade fair organizer in Thailand. In the coming months we will also be establishing a subsidiary in Bangkok. In addition, we opened a new foreign representative office in Ukraine and increased the staff of our representative offices in Russia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In addition to managing business operations abroad, Koelnmesse International was once again commissioned last year by the Federal Ministry of Economics, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the CMA to organize more than 70 German participations in trade fairs all over the world. The highlight of the year was its organization of the German participation in Expo 2005, the 2005 World Exposition in Japan, which made a major contribution to our turnover. The German Pavilion was a top attraction for EXPO 2005 visitors, who were willing to stand in line for four hours on average before being admitted. Above all, it attracted a tremendous response from the Japanese media. So it�s no surprise that the German Pavilion followed up this success by receiving the EXPO Award for most effectively illustrating the event�s slogan, �Nature�s Wisdom.� Germany made a big splash in Japan, and Koelnmesse�s contribution to this role was always very clear to see.

K�lnKongress, a joint subsidiary of Koelnmesse and the City of Cologne, can also look back on a successful year. It conducted some 1,200 conferences, social events and supporting programs for trade fairs at the Koelnmesse Congress Center, which were attended by a total of approximately 270,000 participants.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it�s time to take a look ahead at the trade fairs that will be held in Cologne in 2006. It�s going to be a good year, and all the signs indicate that it�s going to bring us the biggest turnover, the largest number of events, and the highest numbers of exhibitors and visitors in our company�s history. This is due not only to the positive development most of our events are experiencing, but also to the favorable constellation of the different trade fair cycles. For example, some of the events that are only held every three years, such as ENTSORGA-ENTECO and IMB, will be taking place in 2006.

As a result, we expect our turnover for 2006 to approach �220 million. We expect to welcome more than 34,000 exhibitors and over two million visitors. The amount of gross occupied exhibition space will top three million m�, which is the equivalent of ten complete occupations of the exhibition grounds. Finally, our program comprises 76 events in all, including 32 of our own trade fairs in Cologne and 18 abroad. Both of these figures set new records. We expect our overall results to be roughly balanced. Our motto remains �Every penny is being spent for our customers� benefit,� and I�m convinced that this entire region, which is receiving healthy indirect investment returns thanks to the activities of Koelnmesse, will continue to profit from our expenditures in the future.

It goes without saying that our record figures for turnover, number of events, exhibitors, visitors and occupation of gross exhibition space also imply that we�ll be facing major challenges in the future. We�ve still got a lot of work ahead of us. In recent years, our employees have moved veritable mountains as they planned and implemented our Master Plan and a variety of new events. Our work is not going to become any less demanding in the future. But we�re looking forward to it. It�s clear to see that we�re on an upswing.