Chinese bank giant moves to new Spanish HQ

Global property broker Savills has advised the world's largest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), on the letting of its new headquarters in Spain. The bank has secured 1,100 m² of office space on a five-year lease in Madrid's prime business district at 3 Paseo de Recoletos. The lease includes use of 10 car parking spaces.

Recoletos 3 is a six-storey office property totalling 6,016 m² with 65 car parking spaces over four basement levels. The property was sold earlier this year by Savills and Catella, on behalf of Ballester. Savills said that the sale marked the most significant deal in the market in 2010 'with a pricing level not seen since 2008 in Madrid'.

Rafael Merry del Val, head of Savills, said: 'We are thrilled to be involved in the arrival of this Asian giant to Spain. It is a great boost for our market which has recorded office take-up in the first half of 2010 double in comparison to 2009.'

ICBC has 386,723 employees under payroll. ICBC provides a wide range of financial products and services to 3.61 million corporate clients and 216 million individual customers through 16,232 outlets across China, 162 overseas subsidiaries and a global network of more than 1,504 correspondent banks.