Asian investors buy Lanxess Arena for $483m

Chinese investment firm Junson Capital and Mirae Asset Global Investments from Korea are the new owners of Cologne’s 20,000-seat Lanxess-Arena and the surrounding buildings.

The €440 million deal includes the adjacent building complex, containing the training grounds of the city’s hockey club “Haie,” car parks and offices, some of which are used by the city of Cologne.

According to industry source, Junson acquired the training grounds, while Mirae got the parking spaces and offices. 

Lanxess Arena has been operated by CTS Eventim since 2008. The operator is “quite relaxed” about the change of ownership. Its CEO said that, while it was known for some time that a sale was being negotiated, the lease agreement was valid until 2032. Therefore, not much will change regarding the arena’s day-to-day business.

The man who handled the sale and scraped the money together is Josef Esch, whose real estate fund includes 77 investors.

The multi-purpose arena was opened in 1998, holds up to 20,000 spectators, and is among the ten most-used arenas worldwide. According to Musikmarkt, the arena has been operating in the black since 2009. It registered 1.5 million visitors last year, and 714,000 in the first half of 2015.

Source: PollstarPro

Proofread by John Devlin