Qatar is aiming to add yet another London landmark to its string of trophy assets in the capital with a bid to take over the company that controls Canary Wharf.
If its bid is successful, the energy rich state would be adding buildings that make up some the most famous parts of the London skyline to a range of investments that already includes Harrods and stakes in Sainsbury’s, Volkswagen and Porsche.
Only a fortnight ago, it reportedly bought HSBC’s 44-storey global headquarters in Canary Wharf for just over £1.1bn. The deal made the tower – one of two built either side of the original 50-storey Canary Wharf tower – London’s most expensive office building.
The attempt to take full control of Canary Wharf comes at a time when office buildings in London are securing rising rents and as the Docklands site prepares to expand for the first time since the banking crisis. Qatar built an investment in Canary Wharf in the immediate aftermath of that crisis by pouring billions of pounds into a rescue fund which stopped the business collapsing under its own debt.
Qatar’s property-buying spree in London started in 2008 with a 20% stake in Camden market, followed by the high-profile takeover of Harrods for £1.5bn. It bought the famous Knightsbridge store from Mohamed al-Fayed, who had owned it for 25 years.
The stakes are held through a number of investment vehicles which also own stakes in Barclays and the miner Glencore as well as a 95% stake in the Shard, also snapped up during the financial crisis when other investors took fright. The Olympic Village in Stratford, east London, and Chelsea Barracks, in the west of London, are also among its investments.
The latest foray is through the Qatar Investment Authority, which is working with the US commercial property firm Brookfield to buy out Songbird, the company that effectively owns Canary Wharf.
Shares in Songbird, which is partially listed on the stock market, leapt almost 23% after the property developer was forced to confirm City speculation that the Qataris and Brookfield were preparing a joint approach for company.
Winning control of the estate may not be easy as a result of Songbird’s complex ownership structure. While QIA owns almost 27% there are other investors. Simon Glick, the son of a diamond merchant who helps run his family’s Glick Entities property empire, owns almost 26%. The China Investment Corporation, an investment arm of the Chinese state, owns 15.8% while the US investment bank Morgan Stanley owns 8.5%. The bank was one of the key tenants when the development was first opened on land once occupied by warehouses before the docks became disused.
The development was the brainchild of the late Paul Reichmann who brokered the terms of the ambitious building project with then prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1987. Reichmann bowed out when Songbird swooped on Canary Wharf Group. Brookfield, the Qatari’s joint bidder for Songbird, already owns 22% of Canary Wharf Group.
Songbird also owns stakes in the Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City and in the Shell Centre on the South Bank – which it co-owns with another part of the Qatari investment empire.
