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Gratifying result for the MCH Group

  * The MCH Group Ltd. has presented a particularly pleasing result for the
    2009 financial year, in excess of the expectations: an operating result of
    CHF 283.2 million has given rise to a group profit of CHF 19.9 million.
  * A motion will be submitted to the General Meeting once again for the
    creation of authorised capital, enabling the group to accumulate the CHF 40
    million capital it requires for the project "Basel Exhibition Center".
  * The MCH Group Ltd. is submitting a purchase offer of CHF 190 per share to
    the shareholders of Beaulieu Exploitation SA.

In view of the worldwide economic crisis and the fact that the event marketing
business is directly dependent on the economic climate, the MCH Group has reason
to be particularly pleased with the 2009 financial year. It has been able to
maintain, or even strengthen, its market position in the different business
fields and, despite extremely difficult framework conditions, has achieved a
gratifying, better-than-expected result.

With consolidated operating income of CHF 283.2 million (previous year CHF
333.3 million), the MCH Group achieved an EBITDA of CHF 61.1 million (CHF 71.2
million) and a profit of CHF 19.9 million (CHF 26.9 million) in 2009.
Investments totalling CHF 22.7 million (CHF 49.4 million) were made.

The consolidated total assets at the end of the year under review were CHF
541.0 million, with borrowed capital of CHF 317.1 million and equity capital of
CHF 223.9 million. The equity ratio is 41.4% (previous year: 40.7%). The price
of the MCH Group's registered shares rose by 14.5% from CHF 34.50 to CHF 39.50
in the course of the year under review. A proposal will be submitted to the
General Meeting on 17 May 2010 to approve the payment of a dividend of 5%.

Varying impact of the recession

The economic recession affected the individual business fields to differing
extents:

MCH Exhibitions: Income from the group's own exhibitions was some 6% down on the
previous year. Part of the decline is due to the fact that it was a year with a
less busy exhibition schedule on account of the individual exhibition rotas. The
consumer exhibitions were generally less affected by the economic crisis than
the specialist trade fairs, although both Ineltec and Igeho, held in the autumn
of 2009, produced gratifying results. The world shows of BASELWORLD, Art Basel
and Art Basel Miami Beach proved to be highly successful even in a difficult
environment and were able to expand their leading international position still
further.

MCH Infrastructure: In the rental business, the income situation for third-party
exhibitions remained unchanged compared with the previous year. The 18% drop in
income in this business field is due to correspondingly fewer events being
staged. In particular, there was no "EURO 08" effect in 2009, of course.

MCH Event Services: The fields of event management, stand construction and event
technology were the ones hardest hit and most directly affected by the economic
crisis. This led to a large number of events being cancelled or being run on
reduced budgets. The crisis in the automotive industry, in particular, where a
large number of exhibitions and individual exhibition stands were cancelled, had
a major impact on our service business. Income declined by approximately 30% in
this business field compared with the previous year.

Motions to the General Meeting

The financing concept for the "Basel Exhibition Center" modernisation project
worked out jointly with the Cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft and Zurich,
and also the City of Zurich, makes provision for the MCH Group to contribute CHF
40 million of its own capital to the project. This necessitates the issue of new
shares. The General Meeting of 8 May 2008 had authorised the Board of Directors
to proceed to a corresponding increase in the share capital by 8 May 2010 at the
latest. This opportunity to increase the share capital was not taken up. This
was due to the need for the "Basel Exhibition Center" project to be optimised
and for its completion to be postponed for a year, until 2013, and also to the
development in the stock-market price since May 2008.

The Board of Directors will thus submit a renewed application to the General
Meeting of 17 May 2010 for the creation of approved capital. This will be
limited to a period of two years again. In order to create CHF 40 million own
capital, the Board of Directors will be requesting authorisation to issue a
maximum of 2,000,000 new registered shares with a face value of CHF 10 each and
thus increase the capital by a maximum of CHF 20 million. The Board of Directors
is to be authorised to proceed with the capital increase at an appropriate point
in time within the next two years.

The Board of Directors will also submit a motion to the General Meeting of 17
May 2010 proposing that Dr. Karin Lenzlinger Diedenhofen, Werner Helfenstein and
Dr. Ulrich Vischer be confirmed in office for a further term of two years as
members of the Board of Directors of the MCH Group Ltd.

Purchase offer to the shareholders of Beaulieu Exploitation SA

In May 2009, the MCH Group Ltd. and the operating company and owner of the
exhibition and congress centre in Lausanne - Beaulieu Exploitation SA and the
Fondation de Beaulieu - signed a declaration of intent for the MCH Group Ltd. to
acquire at least a two-thirds majority of the shares of Beaulieu Exploitation
SA. On the basis of the framework agreement signed in December 2009, the MCH
Group Ltd. is submitting a corresponding purchase offer to the shareholders of
Beaulieu Exploitation SA. The offer price is CHF 190 per share, with the offer
period running from 16 March to 16 April 2010. The purchase offer is linked to
the condition that at least 66.6% of the shares be tendered to the MCH Group
Ltd., which corresponds to 28,676 shares.



[HUG#1394068]



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MCH Group AG
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WKN: 553176;ISIN: CH0010358494;

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