Birmingham City Council puts NEC Group up for sale

Birmingham City Council has decided to put one of its key assets – the NEC Group – up for sale following a strategic review.

The group operates the National Exhibition Centre, the International Convention Centre, the LG Arena and the National Indoor Arena. It also owns a national ticketing agency, a hospitality brand and a caterer.

The council said the group was “a vitally important contributor to the West Midlands economy, delivering an economic impact of over £2bn p.a. and supporting some 29,000 FTE jobs in the region”.

Birmingham said the transaction would:

  • ensure that the existing uses of the exhibition centre, International Convention Centre and the two arenas were preserved;
  • give the council 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”.

Potential buyers will be invited to participate in a pre-qualification process.

“The NEC Group’s fast growing ancillary businesses do not have the risk profile normally associated with a local authority-owned business,” the council said. “A private sector owner is likely to have greater appetite to invest more capital in these businesses, and to be able to support the growth of the NEC Group internationally.”

Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham, said: “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.”

Birmingham has appointed law firm Wragge & Co to advise on the sale process.