Russian owners sell Helsinki Arena to Finnish investors

By Essi Lehto

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Sanctions-hit Russian owners have sold a closed sports and events arena in Helsinki, the Finnish Foreign Ministry told Reuters on Tuesday.

The deal was announced a day after the city of Helsinki had initiated a forced takeover of the arena from its Russian owners.

The Foreign Ministry would not comment on who bought the arena or at what price, but local newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reported it was sold to Finnish investors.

The Helsinki Arena, a major concert venue and ice hockey arena, has been shut since 2022 following sanctions imposed on Russian investors after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that year.

Helsinki had said last year Russian-Finnish businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenberg, who control the company that owns the arena, would face expropriation unless they voluntarily sold the property.

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RIHF), for which Rotenberg is vice president, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Volga Group, controlled by Timchenko, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The city board had said moving forward with the expropriation was necessary to stop the building from deteriorating and to prevent damage to Finland’s reputation from not being able to cater to large international events.

The process could potentially take years to complete and will require a permit from the government and compensation to the owners, the city added.

Authorities in the capital city in 2023 estimated that up to 400 million euros ($425.24 million) of income per year was being lost for hotels, restaurants and other businesses as long as the arena stood idle.

All of Timchenko’s holdings in the European Union have been frozen, while Rotenberg is the target of U.S. sanctions issued against his father Boris and uncle Arkadiy and their families for their close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian embassy in Finland did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 0.9406 euros)

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, additional reporting by Alexander Marrow and Gleb Stolyarov; editing by Terje Solsvik and Louise Heavens)