High court proceedings regarding Colliers International’s alleged £177m overvaluation of the White Tower portfolio, once controlled by Simon Halabi, began this week.
Lawyers representing the issuer of the 2006, £1.1bn Société Générale CMBS, secured against the portfolio’s five central London office blocks, said it was “clear beyond peradventure that if correct market values had been provided… substantial losses would have been avoided”.
The lawyers claimed Colliers’ valuation of the blocks was negligent to such a degree that it fell below the standard of care to be expected of reasonably competent valuers.
However, Colliers said that the issuer had no “title to sue” and that even if White Tower was allowed to bring its claim, the valuation of the five properties in October 2006 as part of a portfolio was not negligent.
Colliers said the issuer must establish that its portfolio valuation fell “outside the bracket” applicable to a fair valuation. It argued that liability is not established just because any one individual property valuation fell outside the bracket.
The hearing is expected to last four weeks.
Click on the interactive map below to see the values. Click or hover over the circles to see further details. All values in £m.
