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Blackstone backs away from £1bn-plus of London office purchases

Blackstone has walked away from talks to acquire both The Cabot from Hines and Southbank Place from Almacantar for more than £1bn combined.

Blackstone entered into the talks earlier this month on both properties, which had both been put up for sale last year.

Almacantar initially put One and Two Southbank Place, SE1, home to oil giant Shell and a 280,000 sq ft WeWork, on the market last May for around £875m with Cushman & Wakefield.

Completed in 2018, the two office buildings form the commercial element of a wider 1.5m sq ft redevelopment on the 5.5-acre site around the Shell Centre, which is being delivered by Braeburn Estates, a joint venture between Canary Wharf and Qatari Diar.

The scheme, which consisted of refurbishing the building formerly known as the Shell Centre and the new-build Two Southbank Place to provide 572,616 sq ft of office space, was delivered on behalf of Almacantar by Canary Wharf and Qatari Diar.

Almacantar acquired the site from Braeburn Estates for more than £550m in August 2015, using a loan facility from Cain International.

In February last year, Almacantar agreed a £420m debt refinancing for the properties with LGIM Real Assets.

Meanwhile, Hines put The Cabot up for sale with Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield as it came to the end of its £70m refurbishment programme towards the end of last year.

The firm acquired the 455,000 sq ft Canary Wharf office block in 2014 from Morgan Stanley, which still occupies 250,000 sq ft of the building. Hines then prelet more than 208,000 sq ft to IWG’s Spaces brand, the Office of Rail and Road, and the Competition and Markets Authority.

It is one of five freeholds in Canary Wharf not owned by the Canary Wharf Group.

Almacantar, Blackstone and Hines declined to comment.

To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette

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