On Thursday, March 28, the authorities of the Finnish city of Helsinki will hold a meeting to decide on the expropriation of the Helsinki Hall sports and concert venue. This was reported by the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, citing sources, UNN reports.
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Currently, 45% of the arena's shares are owned by the structures of Russian businessmen Roman Rotenberg and Gennadiy Timchenko.
According to the Helsingin Sanomat, the meeting will consider the process of voluntary sale of the hall by Russian shareholders. The voluntary sale process precedes the expropriation process. By the end of March, local authorities were waiting for official confirmation of the voluntary sale, but have not yet received it.
In mid-March, according to the newspaper, Gennadiy Timchenko's representative assured that the documents for the voluntary sale would be sent.
The Helsingin Sanomat notes that the city authorities are not interested in permanent ownership of the arena. Their goal is to sell the arena to the Finnish owners. Roman Rotenberg and Gennadiy Timchenko own 45% of the arena through Arena Events oy. According to Helsingin Sanomat, the sale was supposed to take place on February 28, but was postponed.
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Helsinki Hall is the largest indoor sports and concert venue in the capital of Finland. The arena has been idle since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Russian businessmen purchased the sports and concert complex from Finnish businessman Harri Harkimo in 2013.