Asset manager JP Morgan plans to sell HSBC’s global headquarters in London's Canary Wharf with a price tag of more than £1.1 bn (over €1.3 bn).
Asset manager JP Morgan plans to sell HSBC’s global headquarters in London's Canary Wharf with a price tag of more than £1.1 bn (over €1.3 bn).
Agents JLL and GM Real Estate have been hired to sell the iconic tower by JP Morgan, which is acting on behalf of owners, the South Korean pension fund, National Pension Service of Korea (NPS).
The asset is expected to be formally put up for sale in the next month, well-informed market sources confirmed to PropertyEU.
The price tag of £1.1 bn is believed to reflect a net yield of around 5%. The current pricing is in line with the asset's value at market peak in 2007 when the landmark 44-storey building was sold to Spanish listed property group Metrovacesa for £1.09 bn, or a yield of 3.8%. The deal represented the largest single property acquisition completed in London at the time.
A year later the Madrid-based group was forced to sell back the asset to HSBC after being unable to retrieve the necessary funding.
In 2009, NPS bought the 1.1 million sq ft building for £772.5 mln (€863 mln) in cash. HSBC has full control of occupancy for the remaining 13 years of the existing inflation-linked 20-year leaseback period at a current rent of over £50 mln per annum.
The news, which was first reported by the Financial Times, comes just a day after London's Gherkin office tower was placed into receivership by its creditors, with accountancy firm Deloitte appointed as receivers.
The landmark asset on 30 St Mary Axe - an icon of London's financial district - is co-owned by Evans Randall and IVG, which bought the building in early 2007 for €950 mln.
