Wates City of London has asked its shareholders for £60m to help fund the development of City Point, EC2.
The bulk of the finance for the £300m tower – which is 44% prelet to lawyer Simmons & Simmons at £441 per m2 (£41 per sq ft) – will come from German lender DePfa.
Wates’ one-for-three rights issue surprised the market, which had expected the company to bring in a joint-venture partner.
Joint managing director Rodney Clutton said: “We will retain more of the profit by holding it through the development phase. It is always open to us to sell down in due course.”
Wates also reported a 24% jump in net asset value to 107p per share. Pretax profits more than doubled to £6.3m excluding £2.9m for bad debt.
