Birmingham's NEC Group has been put up for sale by the city council.
The council, facing a £1.1bn bill for equal pay settlements, says it wants to ensure the existing uses are preserved.
The group is "vitally important" to the West Midlands economy, bringing in £2bn a year and supporting the equivalent of 29,000 jobs, the council said.
As well as the National Exhibition Centre, the group incorporates the International Convention Centre, the LG Arena and the National Indoor Arena.
The pay settlements have been agreed with thousands of women who, over many years, were paid less by the city council than workers - mainly men - who did equivalent jobs.
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One law firm is dealing with about 4,000 outstanding cases.
A spokesman for law firm Leigh Day said it welcomed the news that council was seeking ways to raise funds to pay its clients.
The council said it would be inviting potential buyers to participate in a pre-qualification process for the NEC Group, which also owns national ticketing agency, the Ticket Factory, hospitality company Amplify and its catering arm, Amadeus.
Sir Albert Bore, leader of the Labour-run council, said: "An open sale process has been identified through extensive strategy review as the way to achieve full value for this internationally renowned asset, while achieving the other principal objectives of enabling the group to achieve its potential."
Analysis
Birmingham City Council has assets worth between £5 and £5bn.
That includes things it can't sell because of the potential outcry, like the Town Hall, the council house and the city's parks; but it also includes housing stock, commercial land and a number of shopping centres and precincts, which might be offered for sale.
The trouble is the carers, cleaners and dinner ladies who are owed thousands of pounds in back pay are not going to wait forever for their cheques.
Birmingham still needs to raise about £500m to settle their claims and selling off lots of smaller assets might take too long and create the impression of a fire sale.
The city also has to fund its capital investment programme and, in the face of spending cuts, needs extra cash for that too.
The council leadership was reluctant to sell off the NEC group, but it is the simplest and quickest way to raise the most money, even though it's unlikely to plug the spending gap completely.
Sir Albert said the key purpose of establishing the NEC Group had been to drive economic development and regeneration.
He said: "This has been achieved, but now 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 to enable the next stage of strategic development.
"In doing so, economic impact and job creation can be preserved and enhanced."
The sale would also have gone ahead regardless of the council's severe budget restrictions, he added.
NEC Group chief operating officer John Hornby said the decision was "good news".
"A move into private sector ownership will allow the management team to take the risks associated with developing a dynamic, privately-owned business, and supports our vision and ambition for future growth," he said.
"Over nearly 40 years we've developed skills and experience that are transferable, as demonstrated by the contract that we have in place to manage the Convention Centre Dublin.
"Private sector ownership will allow us to accelerate the process of geographic expansion, as well as providing the investment required to grow our service businesses, in particular the Ticket Factory and Amadeus."
The National Exhibition Centre, which opened in 1976, is situated outside the city, close to Birmingham Airport, alongside the LG Arena. The ICC and NIA are in the city centre.
The city council intends to retain "claw-back rights" over potentially valuable land at the NEC site, next to where the HS2 Birmingham interchange could be built.
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