HSBC Says Evaluating Offers For HQ, Paris, NY Buildings
September 29 2009 - 10:59AM
Dow Jones News
HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) is evaluating offers it received for its
headquarters in London and office buildings in New York and Paris,
a spokesman said Tuesday.
The U.K.-based bank started marketing the buildings in April, in
a move that could raise billions of dollars.
"We've marketed the buildings and have received expressions of
interest. We are currently evaluating them," spokesman Patrick
McGuinness said without elaborating.
News reports have put the price tag on the three buildings at
about $2 billion.
HSBC's headquarters in London's Canary Wharf, which has an area
of 1.1 million square feet, is the largest of the three properties.
The other two are a building on Fifth Avenue in New York and
another on Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris.
If sold, HSBC plans to lease back the properties, a person
familiar with the situation has said.
HSBC has escaped the credit crisis relatively unscathed, thanks
to its exposure to resilient economies in Asia and a strong balance
sheet. Earlier this year, it raised GBP12.5 billion in a rights
issue.
People familiar with the situation have said the bank is the
front-runner to buy ING Groep NV's (ING) private banking assets in
Asia and Europe. ING could fetch about $2 billion from the
sales.
HSBC sold its London building before, to Metrovacesa SA for
GBP1.09 billion in 2007, when the property sector was booming. It
bought it back from the Spanish company in 2008, making a quick
profit of about GBP250 million.
-By Patricia Kowsmann, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel
+44(0)207-842-9295, patricia.kowsmann@dowjones.com