Irish investor Derek Quinlan and Propinvest, a London-based private investment company, have completed the acquisition of the European headquarters of Citigroup Bank in London from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1 bn (about EUR 1.4 bn). The trophy asset will be leased back to Citigroup for 25 years.

Irish investor Derek Quinlan and Propinvest, a London-based private investment company, have completed the acquisition of the European headquarters of Citigroup Bank in London from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1 bn (about EUR 1.4 bn). The trophy asset will be leased back to Citigroup for 25 years.

The sale and leaseback of the 42-storey office skyscraper, comprising 114,00 m2 of space, at Canary Wharf was the second-largest single-property transaction ever seen in the UK in July and there had been some speculation recently that the turmoil in the financial markets would derail the funding of the deal.

Quinlan is the founder and chairman of Ireland's Quinlan Private, but took part in the 50-50 joint venture with Propinvest in a personal capacity. Quinlan Private manages assets in excess of EUR 11.5 bn and has been involved in two other mega property deals this year. In April, the company joined up with Delek Global Real Estate and other Israeli partners to buy 47 Marriott Hotels in the UK for EUR 1.6 bn. A few months later the Irish group pulled off the EUR 1.16 bn takeover of the Jurys Inns hotel group.

Since then it has been reported that Quinlan Private was seeking to raise EUR 400 mln from private investors for the Jurys Inn deal. Meanwhile Delek's EUR 2 bn bid for the real estate of Swiss retail chain Jelmoli collapsed after Jelmoli refused to lower the asking price.

Another Irish property investor, D2 Private, reportedly defied the credit crunch to acquire an office building in London's West End at the end of November for EUR 253 mln. Media sources said the amount paid was 10% below the price originally sought by the owners, Legal & General's Life and Linked Life funds. Located about 200 metres from the Houses of Parliament, the building is the headquarters for two government departments.

D2 Private is owned by owned by Irish developer David Arnold and the managing director is Deirdre Foley, a former executive at Quinlan Private.

To read more about the D2 Private deal, click on the link below