The current form of the event company of the city of Lahti will end, reports Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. Kymiring is pointed at with an accusing finger.
The city of Lahti’s events company, Lahti Events, will be discontinued in its current form, says Etelä Suomen Sanomat. Lahti’s Group and Facilities Division proposed the shutdown of Lahti Events’ operations to the city board at its Tuesday meeting with a unanimous decision.
The event company’s difficulties escalated in May, when the MotoGP competition planned for Kymiring was canceled again. Lahti Events was the organizer of the MotoGP public event.
The company was also supposed to organize two other international sports events at Kymiring this summer. Nitro rallycross was canceled completely, the World Motocross competition was moved to Hyvinkää.
– Emilia Mäki emphasizes that the current situation is solely due to Kymiring, ESS quotes the CEO of Events.
Chairman of the board of Lahti Events Jari Oivo was on the same lines.
– The situation is not our (the government’s) fault. We were told (from Kymiring) all the time that things were fine, and suddenly they weren’t.
According to information from Iltalehti, Lahti Events paid two million euros in advance rent for the use of the Kymiring event area.
“Very disappointed”
Lahti Events was supposed to organize three major events at Kymiring this summer. Mikko Huisko
Construction companies Maanrakennus Pekka Rautiainen ky and Macra oy filed for bankruptcy against KymiRing oy at the end of June. KymiRing oy applied for debt restructuring.
According to the district court documents, the railway company owes Lahti Events a good two million euros.
Mäki told Iltalehti last week that Kymiring’s debt to the company is significantly more than two million euros.
– There is the penalty related to the cancellation of MotoGP and other cancellation costs, the contractual penalty for the World Motocross competition, the contractual penalty for Nitro rallycross and the advance rent related to the umbrella agreement for event activities, he explained.
The railway company has a total debt of 24.7 million euros. The debt burden came as a surprise to Events.
– They could have been more open in our direction. We did not know the total amount of Kymiring’s debts. We are really disappointed with the overall situation, Mäki said.
Additional funding remained
Kymiring has not been able to ride MotoGP. Jarmo Sipilä
The financial situation of Lahti Events has been difficult. It made a loss of EUR 667,000 last year, and the company’s equity was almost EUR 1.8 million negative.
According to ESS, Events owes about 6.7 million euros. Of that, around six million euros are for the city of Lahti.
Events previously asked the city of Lahti for additional funding of 2.4 million euros. The city of Lahti decided to increase the credit limit by the requested amount. However, the decision was not implemented because three city councilors filed a rectification claim.
In the future, the parent company of Lahti Events, KOKO Lahti, guarantees, among other things, refunds of the ticket money for events canceled by Events and ensures that already agreed events are carried out.
KOKO Lahti also monitors that Kymiring pays back its debt to Events.