Citigroup's European headquarters in London's Canary Wharf is to go on the market for more than £1 bn (EUR 1.1 bn), according to a media report.
Citigroup's European headquarters in London's Canary Wharf is to go on the market for more than £1 bn (EUR 1.1 bn), according to a media report.
The Financial Times said that the 42-storey office skyscraper is being sold to back the debt entrepreneurs Glenn Maud and Derek Quinlan accrued when they bought the building for £1 bn at the height of the real estate boom in July 2007. According to the newspaper, there is about £875 mln of senior debt and an additional charge of close to £200 mln relating to an interest rate swap agreement owing on the building.
The acquisition of the tower by Maud's Propinvest and private equity group Quinlan Private from Royal Bank of Scotland was one of the largest real estate transactions ever in the UK.
Derek Quinlan stepped down as chairman and partner of Quinlan Private in July 2009. The former Quinlan Private real estate arm now operates as Avestus Capital Partners.
Avestus was involved in one of the largest property sales so far this year in the UK when it sold Knightsbridge Estate in London to the Saudi Olayan Group for about £600 mln.
