London Office Bought For £410M Goes Into Receivership

A London office building bought for £410M just five years ago has been put into receivership after a loan secured against it was not repaid when it matured.

Partners at Alvarez & Marsal have been appointed fixed charged receivers over the special-purpose vehicle that owns 20 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, Mingtiandi reported.

The 581K SF building was bought by Hong Kong investment firm Cheung Kei for £410M in 2017, but BP, one of the two main tenants, is exiting the building.

JLL was appointed to sell the building earlier this year, with a guide price of £250M, Bloomberg reported, and it has a £265M loan secured against it. The loan was provided by Lloyds Banking Group and matured in October but was not repaid, Bloomberg said.

The space is being marketed as a repurposing opportunity for life sciences occupiers. The company lined up a deal to sell the building to Spear Street in 2021, but it ultimately fell through.

The receivership is the second for Cheung Kei in Canary Wharf in recent weeks. In May, partners from FTI Consulting were appointed administrators and receivers to the special-purpose vehicles that own the nearby 313K SF 5 Churchill Place office building.

Cheung Kei bought the building in 2017 for £270M. The lender to the asset, also Lloyds, had been looking to sell a £175M loan secured against the building ahead of a maturity last month. 

JP Morgan occupies the building on a lease that expires in 2029. It took over the lease when it bought Bear Stearns in 2008. Its main London office is the nearby 500K SF 25 Bank Street.

Mingtiandi reported that Cheung Kei released a statement after the receivership of 5 Churchill Place saying that it was in talks to sell a partial stake in the building.