Unrelating

The banking firm, HSBC, hopes to raise funds of three billion Euros by selling off three of their largest commercial premises. The three buildings include their London headquarters in Canary Wharf, some offices in New York and a building in the Champs Elysées.

The decision was made just days after a huge rights issue was approved worth an enormous £12.5 billion. The sale process is to be supervised by the real estate organization, CB Richard Ellis with some help for Jones Lang LaSalle. HSBC intends to trade and lease back the properties concerned for a minimum of ten years.

HSBC is surviving the global economic crisis quite well and avoided the need for government aid. With the solution to the rights issue, the banking group is now one of the strongest in its industry and is continuing to prepare for any possible future acquisitions.

In a relatively good position to take advantage of the new opportunities, HSBC plans to sell a number of its assets that have lost their values during the economic slump.

In spite of the powerful financial position of HSBC, there are still concerns regarding its Household division in which keeping up the $100 billion loan portfolio to the US housing market will not be easy. Investors in the bank are also still anxious regarding the bank’s traded debt securities.

Ending 2008, the market price of HSBC was almost thirteen billion pounds lower than the value held on the books of the bank. Partly because of this, Moody, the ratings agency, gave a negative outlook for the bank, doubting its way of dealing with the rights issue.

HSBC’s Canary Wharf headquarters were bought only a few months after the bank purchased the premises from Metrovacesa, a failing Spanish property firm that was hit hard during the economic crisis. The profit made by the bank as a result of this sale was around £300 million.

The HSBC Tower is a 100,000 square meter premises and was sold by the bank in the middle of 2007 during the heights of the real estate boom in a £1.1 billion sale and leaseback deal. Unfortunately, for Metrovacesa, the deal proved rather too ambitious and HSBC ended up buying it back for £800 million.