Crosstree To Buy £330M Flex Office Platform As It Completes £400M Hotel Refi

UK opportunity fund manager Crosstree Real Estate Partners is in talks to buy flexible office business Argyll for about £330M, as the company also refinances an £800M West End luxury hotel and office asset. 

Crosstree is close to agreeing to a deal to buy Argyll from private equity firms The Baupost Group and Alpine Grove Partners, Green Street News reported. A deal at that price would be lower than the £400M for which the business was put up for sale last October. 

Argyll’s 23 outlets are all in London, primarily in the West End and the City. It is a relative rarity among UK flex office operators in that it owns freeholds on many of its buildings as well as taking leases. 

Argyll has been through multiple ownership groups in recent years. It was bought by Queensgate Investments from Morgan Stanley in 2013, then put up for sale in 2016 with a £700M price tag. It ultimately sold to private wealth manager Celvam Management for £475M in 2018.

In 2021, the business went into administration after rival IWG bought into the company’s debt and ultimately triggered a default. Celvam bought the company back before selling it to Baupost and Alpine later that year.

Crosstree has also refinanced its 1 Hotel Mayfair and One Berkeley Street asset with a new £400M loan, Green Street reported. That loan, provided by HSBC and BNP Paribas, replaces a development loan on the project from the same lenders. The 50% to 55% loan-to-value ratio puts the asset at around £800M. 

Crosstree bought an office and hotel asset next to Green Park station for £150M from Aviva in 2015 before undertaking a major redevelopment. 

The hotel has 184 bedrooms and launched in 2023, and the 60K SF office element counts Starwood and Eastdil Secured among its tenants.