O2 arena

Client: Anschutz Entertainment Group
Practice areas involved: real estate, corporate, tax, employment and pensions, finance, construction and planning
Value: US$440 million

The regeneration of the Millennium Dome has transformed a white elephant into a success story. Herbert Smith advised on every aspect of the Dome’s transformation into the O2 arena and entertainment district. Our involvement began in 2001 when our client, Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), bought the site from the Government.

We then advised AEG on a US$440 million non-recourse speculative development facility, arranged by Credit Suisse, to finance the Dome’s construction and operation. This was an innovative deal: Credit Suisse syndicated the development facility simultaneously in London, New York and Los Angeles. It’s the first time that the US leveraged land development capital markets have been used to finance a speculative development in Europe. Work on the site began in January 2005 and was completed in June 2007. The centrepiece of the multi-million-pound development is the 20,000 capacity indoor arena, the highest grossing music arena in the world. It has hosted over 150 world class music, entertainment and sporting events in its first year of opening. There is also a live music venue – indigO2 – with a capacity of 2,300, the O2 bubble – a state-of-the-art exhibition space, which has recently hosted the acclaimed Tutankhamun exhibition, an 11-screen cinema complex and a vibrant “entertainment district” featuring a variety of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities.