HSBC May Sell London Headquarters, Buildings in New York, Paris
Bloomberg reports: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, may sell three of its landmark office buildings, including the Canary Wharf world headquarters in London, to raise cash as it tries to avoid a bailout from the British government.
HSBC is gauging interest in its 45-story tower at 8 Canada Square in London, its Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York, and its Paris offices on the Avenue des Champs Elysees, said Ruth Lavelle, a London-based spokeswoman for HSBC. The Sunday Times of London reported the potential sales earlier today at a combined asking price of 2.7 billion pounds ($3.96 billion). The newspaper didn’t include the source of its information and Lavelle, in an e-mail, said she couldn’t confirm a price.
The London-based bank is seeking to sell at a time when financing for commercial real estate is difficult and values are falling. In New York, transactions dropped 40 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, according to broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc., and U.K. values fell 29 percent in the 12 months through February, Investment Property Databank Ltd. said in a March 13 report.
“Despite the challenging environment, the properties can be moved if HSBC is willing to offer attractive lease-back and seller-financing terms to a prospective buyer,” Dan Fasulo, managing director of New York-based research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc., said in an e-mail message.
HSBC would probably lease the offices back from any buyer, the Times reported.
“The sale price will be predicated on the lease terms HSBC is willing to accept” to rent back the space, Fasulo said.
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Posted by: Nina Turner