Afternoon:
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HSBC tower sale still up in air
Evening Standard 25 Sep 2008
Spanish property firm Metrovacesa has yet to find a buyer for the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf.
The company, controlled by the Sanahuja family, bought the 210-metre skyscraper at 8 Canada Square for £1.1 billion in the biggest deal in British property history.
Metrovacesa has just weeks to go before time runs out on a vital refinancing of the loan used to buy the building, and is desperate to sell.
If it continues to struggle to find a buyer, HSBC could step in and retake control of the building, buying it back or finding another investor.
It is now worth considerably less than Metrovacesa paid.
Goldman Sachs has been sounding out potential buyers but Jesus Vicente Asenjo, UK manager of Metrovacesa, said nothing had come of the sales process.
