Baker & McKenzie and Taylor Wessing helped finalise the sale of London’s iconic Gherkin building to the Safra Group for over £700m.
The sale last month of one of London’s most distinctive and recognisable landmarks, the 40-storey skyscraper, located at St Mary Axe in the City’s primary financial district, was placed into receivership in April after one of its owners was placed in insolvency, with big-four giant Deloitte appointed as receiver.
The building, home to law firms including Kirkland & Ellis and Hunton & Williams, was purchased by German real estate company IVG Immobilien and investment banking company Evans Randall from Swiss Re for £630m in 2006, but the purchasers have struggled with debt issues in recent years. Its new buyer, the Safra Group, is controlled by Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra and currently has $200bn of assets under management.
This heavyweight real estate mandate saw a Bakers team led by London-based partner and global co-head of financial restructuring and insolvency Ian Jack, real estate partner Stephen Turner and head of investment funds James Burdett, act for the senior lender syndicate’s facility agent and its receivers Deloitte. The syndicate comprises five banks, led by Bayerische Landesbank. Other Bakers lawyers involved include London-based restructuring partner Louise Webb, as well as teams from the firm’s Germany and Luxembourg offices.
Taylor Wessing, meanwhile, advised the buyer with a multi-disciplinary team led by real estate partner Paul Lawrence, alongside corporate partner Ronald Graham and corporate tax partner Robert Young.
Hogan Lovells chairman and real estate partner Nicholas Cheffings notes the deal is indicative of the lucrative mandates filtering through the property market at present. ‘There is still a huge amount of foreign capital looking for a home in the UK, and London in particular – and these are trophy assets. In a sense it’s not a real estate play, it’s a financial investment, and putting it into physical assets in London is seen as a safe haven in a jurisdiction where there’s transparency of investment rules and taxation. You are just comfortable that nothing will go badly wrong.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk