City of Helsinki set to buy former Hartwall Arena

The two-year saga over the future of Finland’s largest arena could finally be nearing its conclusion after the City of Helsinki signalled its intention to acquire the venue from its Russian owners.

The 15,500-cap Helsinki Halli, formerly the Hartwall Arena, has been owned by Arena Events Oy (AEO) – a company co-founded by oligarchs Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenberg – since 2013, but shuttered in early 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All of Timchenko’s holdings in the EU have been frozen, while Rotenberg’s family is the target of US sanctions for their ties with Vladimir Putin.

“The city will take measures to buy the required shares or arena property by sale,” the City of Helsinki tells Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (HS).

According to YLE, the city is seeking a voluntary deal with the current owners, with a process to expropriate the venue to be launched by early June if an agreement cannot be reached.

“This is an important step towards making the arena operational,” says Helsinki deputy mayor Paavo Arhinmäki. “The events industry in particular has lost a huge number of concerts while the arena has been out of use.”

The publication notes that the foundation operating the arena has already been instructed that it must be prepared to reopen as soon as possible if ownership is transferred to the city.

“At this point, it is not relevant who will own the arena later”

Head of office Jukka-Pekka Ujula tells HS there are no estimates on how much the acquisition would cost the city, which is reportedly losing more than €100 million per year due to the closure. In the meantime, Tampere’s 15,000-cap Nokia Arena has filled the breach as the country’s leading events venue.

Several private parties have failed in bids to buy the arena over the past 18 months, and Arhinmäki indicates the city’s ownership could just be a temporary measure to get the venue back in use.

“At this point, it is not relevant who will own the arena later,” adds Arhinmäki.

YLE previously noted that Rotenberg and Timchenko own a combined 44% of the arena’s holding company, Helsinki Halli Oy, but their combined voting power in the firm accounts for 93.9%.

Beverage giant Hartwall ended its 25-year association with the building due to the arena’s Russian ownership shortly after the war began in 2022. Finland’s Flow Festival also ended its brand partnership with Heineken Silver last year due to the lager firm’s operations in Russia.

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