MEN Arena up for sale
THE Manchester Evening News Arena is up for sale.
Its owners, the regional landlord Capital & Regional and the multinational GE, have spent the past three months looking for a buyer for the 20,000-seat stadium which has hosted gigs by U2, Madonna and The Rolling Stones.
In a third quarter management statement Capital & Regional, which owns 30%, said: “The group has started to market the Manchester Evening News Arena with GE, its joint venture partner. The initial interest that has been shown is encouraging.”
GE Real Estate UK and Capital & Regional paid £62m for the venue in 2006, buying it from the US giant Anschutz Entertainment Group, which acquired it for £50m in 2004.
A spokesman for Capital & Regional said it was “too early” to put a price on the venue.
The London-based group also owns The Mall shopping centres across the country, including sites in Preston and Blackburn, as well as the Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester.
In September it raised £69.2m in a share offer after warning it could breach its banking covenants and needed to raise the cash to negotiate new facilities.
In the first half the business saw its asset values shrink from £5.3bn to £3.2bn and was facing a major asset sale if shareholders had not backed the cash call.
Chief executive Hugh Scott-Barrett, said: “The completion of the capital raising has positioned Capital & Regional for growth as well as delivering increased stability to the company’s balance sheet.
“Having stabilised in the third quarter of 2009, valuations in the UK fund businesses, particularly in retail warehouses, are trending higher in the fourth quarter. This reflects the strength of the investment market which is likely for the balance of this year to outweigh pressure on income.”
