Features
Olympia London Sold For £296M
A German-British consortium of international investors has bought the
Courtesy Olympia London – Olympia London Conference Centre
Olympia Grand
Leading the purchase are Deutsche Finance International, a subsidiary of Munich-based Deutsche Finance Group, and Yoo Capital from London.
The 130-year-old exhibition and events business Olympia London is located in Kensington, West London, and hosts more than 1.6 million visitors and 200 events in its seven spaces each year.
The entire site encompasses 14 acres, but the acquisition also includes 3.9 acres of land for the development of hospitality, leisure and residential assets.
Sven Neubauer, chief investment officer of Deutsche Finance International, said the purchase of Olympia London marked a “successful start to a series of interesting club deals and joint ventures, respectively, for institutional investors we’re currently working on.”
Yoo chairman John Hitchcox said “a detailed update on our plans and work with local stakeholders” would follow in the second half of 2017.
The company’s MD, Andrew Thorpe, added that Yoo Capital would “work closely with Deutsche Finance to support the tremendously talented management team [of Olympia London], while bringing forward the long-term opportunities for complementary hospitality, leisure and residences available on the estate.”
Other investors in the deal include Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest manager of public pension schemes, through a fund administrated by Universal-Investment, the Versicherungskammer Bayern Group (VKB), Germany’s largest public insurer, DFI European Value Add Fund and YC, as UK co-investor and asset manager.
Reports state that Chinese investment firm HNA Group was interested as well, having offered more than £300 million, but didn’t win the bid.