Firstly, I am telling you from my experience that there is no fee or shrs involved to be a distributor or a representative of a manufacturer in general. In fact, they should've stated clearly in the pr if there was fee or shrs involved for getting a distributorship, but they didn't because there is none.
Secondly, UnTil didn't give an exclusive distributorship to just one person. They appointed Monarc to be an exclusive distributor for an entire continent and i suppose it's because they see capability of Monarc headed by Steen.
Thirdly, I think you're right that participating a couple of trade shows is not enough to cover an entire continent, but they need to start somewhere to make a sell happen just like you said, and those 2 biggest trade shows are not bad places to make things happen.
Lastly, when the pr came out, you said the D-word 1st thing in the morning and the last post of yours.
I simply responded to that.