Talks to sell a 12-storey office block in Canary Wharf, 5 Churchill Place, have ended with the building being withdrawn from the market.
Savills has been advising on the sale of the former headquarters of collapsed investment bank Bear Stearns in London's Docklands on behalf of receivers from FTI Consulting, which had taken over the property from Chinese investment firm Cheung Kei Group.
It was widely reported last month that the building was close to being sold with a price of around £110 million to £120 million close to being agreed. The party linked to the acquisition was Israeli real estate investment firm Ariomori Group.
The building was bought for close to £300 million by Cheung Kei Group in 2017.
Market sources have suggested the talks ended as the banks connected to the loan for Cheung Kei's original acquisition believe pricing is beginning to improve. Lloyd's Bank originally provided a £175 million loan and mezzanine debt was extended by an international conglomerate. It has been reported that Lloyd’s no longer holds the majority of the initial loan.
Around half of the 17 million square feet of offices at the Canary Wharf estate are owned by Canary Wharf Group, which is in turn owned jointly by Brookfield and Qatar Investment Authority. Brookfield and Qatar separately own other offices on the estate.
In October of last year Canary Wharf Group announced that its shareholders, Brookfield and the Qatar Investment Authority, had committed £400 million by way of a £300 million equity subscription and a £100 million revolving credit facility. The proceeds are being used to complete the strategic repositioning of the estate and build out additional residential and life sciences projects on the estate.
Earlier this week, CoStar News revealed that Korean global mutual investment fund Mirae Asset Global Investments had cancelled the bellwether sale of 20 Old Bailey in the City of London to Indonesian investor Sinar Mas Land for around £240 million in favour of a refinancing and sale at a later date as the market begins to recover.
The Korean investor bought the 247,000-square-foot building in 2018 for around £340 million from US private equity giant Blackstone.
The sale would have been the largest office sale in London in the first quarter of 2024.
Mirae is being advised by Cushman & Wakefield and Sinar Mas by JLL.
There remains around £2 billion of central London offices investments close to selling led by a major Blackstone acquisition of an office and retail block on New Bond Street.