THE NUMBER OF “GAMBERO ROSSO” CONTENDERS GROWS… THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD & WINE GROUP IS A MOUTH-WATERING ACQUISITION, BUT STILL NO BITES. “IL SOLE 24 ORE” REVEALS THE LATEST INDISCRETIONS AND THE COMPANY’S EARNINGS

There are many suitors, but still no official proposals. Almost daily, a newspaper or magazine reports on rumors of the possible addition of new partners or even the sale of Gambero Rosso, the “food & wine factory” run by Stefano Bonilli. It is a fact that the possible changing of hands of Gambero Rosso has been long discussed (with www.winenews.it initially breaking the story). The operation is definitely in the works, though taking the final step is still not a guarantee. The latest update has been revealed by “Il Sole 24 Ore”, which, according to the economic daily, Mario Resca (President of Confimprese and the top manager who brought McDonald’s success in Italy), may be interested in entering into the capital of the Gambero Rosso Group with the goal of re-launching activities (also interested - still according to rumors - were other groups like Rcs, Mondadori, L'Espresso, Class…). The Gambero Rosso Group, which over the years has conquered notoriety in both Italy and abroad, has, today, become a reference point of enogastronomy, both on the printed and satellite television fronts.

The World of Gambero Rosso
The Gambero Rosso Group is made up of three primary parts: the GRH - Gambero Rosso Holding (1.5 million euro share capital), which was originally solely created as an editorial group but which has now fabricated contents in all food & wine sectors, including events and fairs dedicated to enogastronomy; there is also the control of D-gusto Srl which heads satellite television activities with RAI: and finally there is Gambero Rosso Inc. that is subdivided between Stefano Bonilli and his partner Marinella Viglione (40% each), as well as Daniele Cernilli (10%) and Giancarlo Perrotta (10%).
Within the GRH, at the “food & wine factory”, there are also the fiduciaries Negotia (16%), Bruno Pellegrino (7,11%), Furio Massimo Garbagnati (0,37%) and Igi (16%), the company that recently passed from the orbit of Interbanca to that of Cipa (Cirla & Palandri). And it is precisely Igi, according to the indiscretions reported by “Il Sole 24 ore”, that would have known how to evaluate the eventual options proposed by Resca.
According to the Cerved source reported in the economic daily, 86.6% of economic earnings are made by the editorial group’s activities, while television production represents a little over 13%. In 2005 the “food & wine factory” closed out its balance sheets with unrevealed earnings and a loss of 7,869 euros. The D-gusto division, counts a shared capital of 7 million and 20 thousand euros, and in 2005 it registered earnings of 4 million, 284 thousand euros, of which 2.3 went to suppliers; the result was a negative 562,000 euros. The last balance sheet available for Grh (2004) instead showed earnings of 14.3 million, compared to a debt of 15 million, 215 thousand euros (7.7 million in credits). The results before taxes were positive for 3.2 million; the 2004 balance had extraordinary returns of 6.1 million euros.