The intense marketing and sale of 30 St Mary Axe, EC3 , commonly known as 'The Gherkin' is now firmly fixed in last year. Whilst we look forward into 2015 and fully engage ourselves in new instructions, it is worth taking stock of a journey that resulted in the sale of one of London's most iconic building for a record price.
The entity that held the freehold interest in the property was put into Receivership in April 2014 with Deloitte being appointed as Joint Receivers. A subsequent competitive pitch process for the mandate to sell the building resulted in the appointment of Deloitte Real Estate and Savills, a marquee appointment we were delighted to achieve.
From the moment of our appointment in May 2014 it was agreed with the Joint Receivers that we would aim to complete the sale by the end of 2014. No small task in such a confined timescale with such a high value and profile asset.
Having created a very high quality sales brochure, we carefully planned and organised a global marketing campaign. From a travel perspective that included visiting three continents, meeting over 60 investors and cumulatively flying 34,267 miles during a three week period.
For the team on the ground, daily data management including the compilation of a comprehensive data room, reporting to Julian Stocks and Ben Massey who ran the sales process as appointed Asset Managers, frequent meetings with the solicitors, maintaining regular contact with the c. 400 interested parties and undertaking detailed building inspections kept us very busy. The efforts of the home team complemented and underpinned the global marketing campaign.
With a best bids date set and the marketing complete, we received a number of proposals and went back to a selection. With the benefit of competitive tension we managed to exchange contracts over a weekend for a price in excess of our expectations with The Safra Group prevailing as the winning bidder. All of our diligent efforts and pre-sales preparation at the beginning of the process ensured no price reductions were received and all creditors were repaid in full.
The reported sales price of £726m, set a new City of London record and reflected a capital value in the order of c. £1,410 per sq ft, a net initial yield of approximately 3.9%.
The sale was also the largest single asset deal of 2014 in the City of London.
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