The Sunday Times
April 13, 2009
HSBC confirms interest in office property sale
HSBC today confirmed that it is considering selling three of its largest offices, including its London headquarters, after receiving interest from possible bidders.
The bank, which recently raised over Ј12.5 billion through a rights issue, may sell its offices in New York, Paris and Canary Wharf in London or could opt to off-load the properties and lease them back if there is insufficient interest for an outright sale.
A spokesman for HSBC, said today: ”We are taking a look at the market, yes. There are people interested in buying at an appropriate price.”
The Sunday Times revealed yesterday that HSBC was hoping to raise Ј2.7 billion by selling the three buildings and has hired CB Richard Ellis, the property business, to head up the process.
HSBC bought back its building at Canary Wharf for Ј838 million from Metrovacesa at the end of last year after the Spanish group failed to refinance a loan secured on the building.
Earlier this month, HSBC revealed there had been a strong take-up for its billion rights issue aimed at raising cash mainly to plug a hole largely created by losses at Household, its US division.
After the rights issue, HSBC will have a ”core” tier one capital ratio — a measure of capital on the bank's balance sheet as a proportion of its loans — of 8.5 per cent.
Underwriters and advisers on the deal are in line for fees of more than Ј400 million. It was underwritten by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Cazenove, HSBC and three other co-bookrunners. The advisers are expected to receive a success fee of another 0.5 per cent — worth Ј64 million.
Analysts believe that HSBC will have more firepower for takeovers after the rights issue. It has been linked recently with a bid for Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets.
Сообщение отредактировал Online5555: 18.04.2009, 21:51:07