Candys walk away from Middlesex Hospital scheme

  The Candy brothers have given up their involvement in the Middlesex Hospital redevelopment in central London, paving the way for Icelandic bank Kaupthing to sell the site or find a new partner.   In a deal negotiated in the last few days, the Candys will walk away from their joint venture with the bank on the three-acre Fitzrovia site in exchange for Kaupthing walking away from their jv with the Candys on a luxury residential scheme in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.   It is not clear what payments have changed hands as part of the deal.   The move would draw a line under a dispute which erupted when Christian Candy’s CPC Group announced three weeks ago that it had taken control of both projects because Kaupthing’s administration in the UK and nationalisation in Iceland amounted to breaches of the jv agreements.   Kaupthing has already received numerous offers for the Middlesex Hospital site and is now expected to start a more formal process to recoup its losses on the scheme by finding a buyer or new jv partner.   JVs between Christian Candy’s CPC Group and Kaupthing bought the London site in 2006 for £175m, and bought the California site for $500m (£289m) in 2007.   CPC said this morning: “We would be interested in purchasing Noho Square, in the future, as a potential joint venture with Kaupthing hf or an outright sale – we know more about the site than any other party. We are in a good shape and can move fast on deals but CPC Group will only invest wisely in the current market.”   See this Saturday’s Estates Gazette for a fuller version of this story.   julia.cahill@rbi.co.uk