Capco announces that it has exchanged and completed on the sale of venues, its exhibition business, comprising Olympia London together with certain related property assets, for a total gross cash consideration of €346.6m(£296m). Venues has been sold to a consortium of German institutional investors, which includes Bayerische Versorgungskammer (Germany’s largest manager of public pension schemes investing through a fund managed by Universal-Investment) as the single largest shareholder, the Versicherungskammer Bayern Group (Germany’s largest public insurer) and DFI European Value Add Fund (together the “Consortium”). The Consortium is advised by investment firm Deutsche Finance International and Yoo Capital, as UK co-investor. Capco has been advised by Rothschild and CBRE on this transaction.
Venues is an exhibition business, comprising Olympia London together with certain related property assets.
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. In the run-up to the closure of Earls Court, Capco successfully transitioned over 80 per cent of shows from Earls Court to Olympia London. In addition, Capco invested €35.1m (£30m) in Olympia London establishing it as the preferred central London venue for premium shows.
Venues generated an EBITDA of €22.2m (£19m) and profit after tax of €13.8m (£11.8m)for the year ended 31 December 2016. Venues had gross assets of €366m (£313m) as at 31 December 2016.
Ian Hawksworth, Chief Executive of Capco, commented: “We are pleased to announce the sale of Olympia London to the Consortium. Following the successful transition of shows from the former Earls Court exhibition centres and our strategic investment in recent years, Olympia London is now established as the preferred central London venue for premium shows. Now that the period of transition is complete, it is the right time for Capco to exit its ownership of the venue. It has been our privilege to be part of the rich history of this historic venue, and we wish the business and management team great success under its new ownership. The completion of this transaction delivers value for our shareholders and will position Capco to concentrate effort and resources on our two exceptional central London estates at Covent Garden and Earls Court, as well as further enhance our financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.”
