Israeli tycoon Nochi Dankner is in negotiations tobuy a £100m stake in British Land’s Broadgate Estate, EC2.
Dankner, 53, announced via the Tel Aviv stock exchange on Thursday morning that one of his investment vehicles was considering buying shares in the building from an existing shareholder, thoughtto be BL.
The acquisition is to be made throughProperty & Building Corporation, a subsidiary of Dankner’s IDB Holding, and would give the group a minority stake in the UK’s second-largest REIT.
IDB last month said that it was looking to collaborate with Rock Real Estate Partners, a company ownedby the Schimmel family, to target UK property.
Mark and Jacob Schimmel are also rumoured to be eyeing a stake in the 4.8m sq ft estate. It is unknown whether this is with IDB or on theirown.
A spokeswoman for BL said: “We have received a number of preliminaryapproaches from potential investors for a stake in the Broadgate Estate. Talksare at very early stages.”
MGPA, the Australian fund backed by the Macquarie Group, is still in talks with the REITto buy a half-share in Broadgate.
If thisgoes through, MGPA will assume half Broadgate’s £2bn debt as part of a deal that would value theestate at £2.5bn.
Any deal is likely to be complicated, given that the estate is part of a single £2.1bn securitisation vehicle. Any investor would have to take on future risks including the likelihood of increasing voids.
Property & Building was founded in 1961. In 2007, the business – which owns three large hotels in the UK -showed a profit of 170m shekels (£22m at 2007 rates) off a turnover of 1bn shekels.
