London’s iconic skyscraper the Gherkin (pictured) has been placed in
receivership.
The building – 30 St Mary Axe – was bought by German real
estate company IVG Immobilien and private equity firm Evans Randall during 2007
for a reported £600 million, three years after it was completed.
Last year IVG Immobilien filed for insolvency after
struggling with growing debts. Last week private equity group Evans Randall had been unable
to agree on a new deal with IVG – despite announcing earlier that it was keen to
invest more. Although behind-closed-doors talks were thought to be continuing
last week, the Gherkin is now up for partial sale.
Deloitte announced late last month that it will act as
receiver, and that “adverse interest rate and currency movements” had
contributed to debts mounting up.
“The senior lenders were reluctant to appoint a receiver but
felt they had no choice due to the ongoing defaults, which have remained
uncured for over five years,” joint receiver and Deloitte partner Neville Kahn
told reporters.
He added that there were “concerns that the borrowers’ lack
of equity in the transaction had caused their incentives to become misaligned
with the lenders”.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group,
wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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