other assets, such as the former Metrovacesa building in London’s Canary Wharf
HSBC is selling a prime Paris asset for a figure believed to be as much as €450m.
The sale-and-leaseback of the global bank’s French headquarters, at 109Champs Elysées, is understood to havealready been considered in the past, with CB Richard Ellis advising.
Buta move to consolidate its French operations into one base, possiblyin the La Défense financial district,was scuppered by the need for trade union approval.
The property, near the Arc de Triomphe, was formerly the offices of French bank, Crédit Commercial de France (CCF), which HSBC took over in late 2005. HSBC would pay around €30m a year in rent on the Paris property.
CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle are now understood to be advising HSBC.
The bank is also looking to sell offices in London and New York, including the Canary Wharf asset it bought back from Spanish investor Metrovacesa for £838m (€971m) in December last year.
HSBC had originally sold the 45-storey tower to Metrovacesa for £1.1bn in May 2007 andprovided debt to Metrovacesa to buy the building.
French property company Unibail-Rodamco is also selling a prime asset in Paris. The 2,992 m2 asset, in Avenue Hoche in the centre of the city, is back on the market.
The investor had tried to sell the property along with three other properties in June last year.
In Lyon, ING’s European Office Fund is selling an asset for around €50m. Several German spezialfonds are understood to have expressed an interest in the 12,000 m2 Triangle Part-Dieu property. ING paid €41m for the asset in July 2007 prior to completion.
Jones Lang LaSalle is advising ING.
