Britain’s largest personal pension fund has entered the race to purchase the lease of the O2, London’s best-known leisure venue.
Sky Information has learnt that the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is among the many bidders for the long-term earnings stream generated by the sector.
Pension fund sources mentioned a lot of outstanding institutional buyers had been collaborating in an public sale being run by Eastdil, the actual estate-focused funding financial institution.
USS, which owns stakes within the operator of Britain’s air visitors management service and Moto, the motorway service station chain, is known to be a critical contender for the O2 area lease.
It’s among the many shareholders burnt by the monetary implosion of Thames Water, and has written its stake all the way down to zero as a rescue deal is negotiated.
The public sale has been below method for a while, with Sky Information having revealed a number of months in the past that it was being put up on the market by Cambridge College’s wealthiest school.
Trinity School, which ranks amongst Britain’s largest landowners, acquired the positioning in 2009 for a reported £24m.
The O2, which shrugged off its ‘white elephant’ standing within the aftermath of its disastrous debut because the Millennium Dome in 2000, has since turn out to be one of many world’s main leisure venues.
Operated by Anschutz Leisure Group, it has performed host to a big selection of music, theatrical and sporting occasions over almost 1 / 4 of a century.
The chance to accumulate the 999-year lease is more likely to result in a deal being struck later within the spring.
Trinity School, which was based by Henry VIII in 1546, purchased the O2 lease from Lend Lease and Quintain, the property corporations which had taken management of the Millennium Dome website in 2002 for nothing.
A USS spokesman declined to remark.
