The NEC Group, which operates and owns the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), is to be sold by Birmingham City Council (BCC).

BCC is seeking offers for the company to help settle more than £1bn in equal pay claims after thousands of workers, mainly women, received lower wages than their counterparts.

The council claims the NEC Group brings in more than £2bn to the West Midlands economy and supports some 29,000 full-time jobs in the region.

NEC group owns and operates the NEC, the NEC Arena, the International Convention Centre (ICC) and the National Indoor Arena.

In addition to its four venues, the NEC Group has established a number of related businesses, including a national ticketing agency (The Ticket Factory), a catering business (Amadeus) and NEC Group International, which operates third party-owned venues.

According to Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore, the NEC Group has achieved its goals of driving economic development and expansion, but now needs private investment to achieve further.

“The NEC Group has reached a point in its evolution where it needs to be able to adopt the financial disciplines of a private, rather than a council-owned company,” he said. “An open sale process has been identified as the way to achieve full value for this internationally-renowned asset, whilst achieving the other principal objectives of enabling the Group to achieve its potential and growing economic impact.”

The City Council intends to ensure that the existing uses of the NEC, ICC and two arenas are preserved. It also intends to retain claw-back rights over certain land at the main NEC site, to preserve potential future development value from land that will be adjacent to the Birmingham Interchange HS2 station.

Birmingham City Council and the NEC Group have retained Gleacher Shacklock as financial advisers and Wragge & Co as legal advisers in relation to the sale process.