A row over the Heron Tower’s £315m debt pile could see the landmark City skyscraper put up for sale.
The owners of the 46-storey tower including Gerald Ronson’s Heron International, the State General Reserve of Oman and undisclosed members of the Saudi Royal Family, have fallen out over terms of a debt refinancing.
Heron has been in talks with Starwood Capital to provide £250m of refinancing for the flagship scheme, since May.
However current lenders, led by US bank Wells Fargo, are now mulling over the appointment of receivers to the scheme if an agreement cannot be reached.
One source, who called the dispute “pretty serious”, said an orderly sale of the building was a likely outcome unless the partners could agree on a fresh debt package which would meet individual requirements for realising value from their investments.
The 46-storey tower was completed in 2011 and is around 60% let. It was developed using a £370m loan led by two German banks, Hypothekenbank and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, of which only £300m was used.
US lender Wells Fargo controls a large chunk of the office tower’s debt after acquiring the UK property loan book of Hypothekenbank – also known as Eurohypo – in July.
