05/03/2014

Council Seeks Offers For NEC Group

Birmingham City Council is seeking offers for the NEC Group.

Principal objectives of the proposed sale are to secure an investor who shares the vision and strategic ambitions of the NEC Group and to maximise the proceeds for Birmingham City Council. Bringing the NEC Group under private ownership will enable the business to take full advantage of its growth opportunities and reach the next stage of its development.

The NEC Group is a vitally important contributor to the West Midlands economy, delivering an economic impact of over £2 billion pa. and supporting some 29,000 FTE jobs in the region. Securing and enhancing this economic impact is a key objective for Birmingham City Council.

A strong NEC Group attracts further economic activity to the region. This has been evidenced strongly through securing the £140 million plus investment into Resorts World Birmingham by Genting UK. The NEC Group’s position would be strengthened through private sector ownership, and this should act as a catalyst for further investment in the region.

The City Council will invite potentially interested buyers to participate in a pre-qualification process while sale preparations are finalised.

In structuring a transaction, the City Council intends to ensure that the existing uses of the exhibition centre, International Convention Centre and two arenas (LG Arena and National Indoor Arena) are preserved. This will secure the profile of Birmingham and the broader West Midlands as a world-class home of a broad array of live events.

The City Council also intends to retain claw-back rights over certain land at the main NEC site, so ensuring that it preserves potential future development value from a highly attractive site that will be adjacent to the Birmingham Interchange HS2 station.

Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council, commented: "A key purpose of the City Council investing in establishing the NEC Group more than 30 years ago was to drive economic development and regeneration.

"This has been achieved, but now the NEC Group has reached a point in its evolution where it needs to be able to adopt the financial disciplines of a private, rather than a council-owned company to enable the next stage of strategic development. In doing so, economic impact and job creation can be preserved and enhanced.

"An open sale process has been identified through an extensive strategic review process as the way to achieve full value for this internationally-renowned asset, whilst achieving the other principal objectives of enabling the Group to achieve its potential and growing economic impact."

(CD)

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