Qatar Investment Authority, the country's sovereign wealth fund, has confirmed the purchase of Credit Suisse's London headquarters at One Cabot Square in Canary Wharf, London. Although financial details were not disclosed, the deal price is understood to amount to some EUR 400 mln.
Qatar Investment Authority, the country's sovereign wealth fund, has confirmed the purchase of Credit Suisse's London headquarters at One Cabot Square in Canary Wharf, London. Although financial details were not disclosed, the deal price is understood to amount to some EUR 400 mln.
The Swiss lender has agreed to lease back the asset through 2034.
The 546,114 sq ft (50,000 m2) building was designed by international architects Pei Cobb Freed Partners, and completed in 1991 by developer Canary Wharf Group, in which QIA also has a significant interest via its 28%-owned unit, Songbird Estates. The Qatari fund is also a shareholder in Credit Suisse, with a 6% stake.
The acquisition follows hard on QIA's purchase in December last year of the new headquarters development of Poland's national telecommunications provider Telekomunikacja Polska in Warsaw. Last year, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund also bought most of Royal Dutch Shell's headquarters campus in London in a joint venture with Canary Wharf Group.
