New information about the Helsinki hall store – “We are positively surprised”

Helsinki hall closing the deal is progressing. The EU’s new sanctions package for Russia was confirmed on Monday. The package enables the granting of an exemption permit for the trading of the shares of the arena company Helsinki-halli.

However, that does not mean that the deal is over yet. Next, the matter will be dealt with by the Finnish authorities.

“In Finland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the enforcement agency are processing the application, so we will submit the application to these parties in the near future,” says Heikki Viitikko.

Viitikko acts as the main investor in the conglomerate that saved the hall to domestic ownership.

If a permit is required from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the enforcement agency, nothing else is needed. Is there an estimate as to when the deal will finally be completed?

“On behalf of the authorities, we cannot estimate the processing schedule, but we are positively surprised that the European Union’s permission came so quickly,” Viitikko says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has promised to deal with the matter quickly.

“The ball is now in the hands of the parties to the trade,” commented the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who represented Finland at the meeting of EU foreign ministers, to HS. Pasi Rajala.

Bureaucracy while the strollers are spinning in the hall, things have moved on. Viitikko says that maintenance and official inspections are going well.

The hall was known for decades as the Hartwall arena, and It has been reported from Hartwallthat they might be interested in returning as the title partner of the arena.

According to Viitiko, the name issue is not topical yet.

“We haven’t even negotiated the name issue yet, we’ve started from the assumption that we’ll wait for the authorities and do technical things at the same time. Then, when the deal is closed, we will be able to be a negotiating party”, says Viitikko.

In November it was reported that the real estate investment company Trevian Kasvu will buy the controlling C shares of Helsinki Hall from the Arena Events company. Implementation of the transaction requires an exception permit.

All but one of the Russian oligarchs who control Arena Events are subject to EU sanctions against Russia.

The arena has been practically empty for more than two years due to the war of aggression that Russia started in Ukraine the other year and the sanctions that followed.