A consortium of institutional investors led by Deutsche Finance International and Yoo Capital has bought the Olympia London Exhibition Centre from Capital & Counties for £296m.
The consortium has bought Capco’s Venues business, which consists of Olympia with other related property assets. Capco said Venues generated a profit before tax of £19.0m and a post-tax profit of £11.8m in the year 31 December 2016, and had gross assets of £313.0m.
DFI is part of the Deutsche Finance Group, and the other partners include Bayerische Versorgungskammer, Germany’s largest manager of public pension schemes, the Versicherungskammer Bayern Group and DFI European Value Add Fund.
Frank RoccoGrande, co-managing partner of DFI, said: “This opportunity allows us to build on the successful foundation laid by Capco and take a long-term, holistic approach in managing, growing and regenerating parts of the estate to build value for our investors.”
The 14-acre freehold site sees more than 1.6m events each year and host 200 events. The acquisition includes 3.9 acres of freehold land available for hospitality, leisure and residential development.
Capco acquired full control of the Earls Court & Olympia London venues and operating business in 2009. Earls Court and Olympia London were run as one business until the permanent closure of Earls Court at the end of 2014.
It said that after repayment of debt, working capital adjustments and transaction-related costs, net proceeds are approximately £229m. It said the cash will be used to repay bank debt and for redeployment into its core central London estates.
Yoo Chairman John Hitchcox said: “We will work closely with Olympia management to ensure Olympia continues to represent the very best in world-class exhibition space for Central London and the UK. We plan to provide a detailed update on our plans and work with local stakeholders in the second half of 2017.”
The consortium was advised by Norton Rose Fulbright, Deloitte, Langham Hall and Jones Lang LaSalle. Capco was advised by Rothschild and CBRE.
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