Property in Canary Wharf has 546,114 sq ft of space
(BERLIN) Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign-wealth fund, bought Credit Suisse Group AG’s London headquarters and leased the building back to the Swiss lender.
The property at One Cabot Square in the Canary Wharf financial district has 546,114 square feet of space, Qatar Holding LLC, the wealth fund’s foreign investment unit, said in a statement on its website.
Zurich-based Credit Suisse agreed to lease the building until 2034, Qatar Holding said. It didn’t disclose the transaction value.
Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co, another arm of Qatar’s wealth fund, bought most of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s headquarters campus in London with Canary Wharf Group plc in July. Canary Wharf is controlled by Songbird Estates plc, in which Qatar Holdings owns almost a 28 per cent stake.
A spokesman for Qatar Holding couldn’t be reached by phone and didn’t immediately answer an e-mail seeking comment.
The Daily Telegraph reported last month that the sale-and-leaseback deal was valued at about £330 million (S$650.5 million).
The newspaper didn’t cite anyone.
Qatar’s various funds also own about a 26 per cent stake in J Sainsbury plc, the UK’s third-largest supermarket owner, the Chelsea Barracks high-end residential project, Park House on Oxford Street, Harrods Department Store and the US embassy building in Mayfair. — Bloomberg
Source: Business Times 21 Feb 2012
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