The investment vehicle of South African business magnate Nathan Kirsh is frontrunner to buy Tower 42 in the City of
Kirsh is understood to be leading a pack of three in the race for the £290m EC2 office building.
Exemplar, with Canadian pension fund PSP Investments, and Doughty Hanson are also believed to have made the final round. Catalyst Capital and Tishman Speyer were among other bidders for the iconic 324,000 sq ft tower.
Tower 42 was brought to market by BlackRock UK Property Fund and LaSalle Investment Management through Jones Lang LaSalle in September for a yield of 6.9%. The vendors had initially tried to sell it early last year, but withdrew it in August 2010.
Investors were this week also lining up to buy KanAm’s
Sources said German fund manager KanAm was “seriously considering” the five bids it has on the table for its four-building “super-prime” portfolio for close to the £1bn asking price.
Bidders include JP Morgan Asset Management,
KanAm put the assets on the market in September through Knight Frank, saying it wanted to focus on building its portfolio in euro-denominated markets.
The properties, which were bought between 2003 and 2007, comprise Deutsche Bank’s UK HQ at Winchester House, EC3; Thomson Reuters’ European HQ in Canary Wharf at 30 The South Colonnade, E14; Olswang’s HQ at 90 High Holborn, WC1; and One Exchange Square, EC2, home to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The City has been awash with investment stock in the past few months, but this has so far been well received by largely overseas buyers looking to
