U.S. Investor And Global Lenders Bet Big On Central London Office Tower

With the future of the role that city-centre office towers will play in working life still uncertain, an investor and a group of banks have backed one London office tower to succeed.

The 440K SF 110 Bishopsgate, previously known as the Heron Tower and sometimes called the Salesforce Tower, has received a new loan from a group of international lenders and an equity stake in the building could be about to change hands.

A group of lenders led by European banks LBBW and ING and Japanese bank SMBC have refinanced the existing loan against the building with a £400M, five-year senior loan, in a refinancing that values the building at about £720M, CoStar reported. 

More than half the loan was syndicated to eight lenders from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Germany and China, CoStar said, adding that Taiwanese banks Bank of Taiwan, Hua Nan Bank and Chang Hwa Bank were new lenders to the building.

The building was developed by Heron International, veteran investor and developer Gerald Ronson’s property company, in a consortium with the State General Reserve Fund, the Oman sovereign wealth fund and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd.

U.S. investor Madison International has been in talks to buy a stake in the building for about £195M. Madison specialises in buying partial stakes in assets or businesses from investors looking for liquidity. 

In 2015, Chinese firm Anbang and Japanese firm Takenaka both came close to buying the building for around £750M before deals fell away. 

Salesforce is the building’s largest occupant and is the tenant for 11 of the 36 storeys.