Nomura to rent new London HQ in Square Mile-source
LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Japan's Nomura (8604.T) will leave the Canary Wharf offices it inherited from collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers when the lease expires in 2011, a source familiar with the matter said.
The Japanese bank agreed on Friday to rent the new 525,000 square foot Watermark Place development on the banks of the River Thames near London's historic City financial district, the source said, declining to give details on rental terms.
"The property market was well aware Nomura wanted to move; it was either going to be to Watermark Place or Walbrook," the source told Reuters on Monday.
"(Watermark Place) is going to complete on July 29 and that was seen as a major advantage as the Canary Wharf lease expires in March 2011. It takes well over a year to fit out a new building of that size."
But the bank will retain its current base at 1 St. Martins le Grand in the City, the source said.
"They have a technical centre in there and they will continue to run departments from there. They need surplus space as well for future growth," the source said.
Nomura declined to comment.
Watermark Place has been developed by UBS Global Asset Management in a joint venture with Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) and Core.
Property services firms Knight Frank and CB Richard Ellis (CBG.N) are the letting agents for the project.
CANARY WHARF WOE
News of the move is likely to kill off persistent speculation Nomura wanted to make its presence in Canary Wharf permanent to remain close to rivals Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Barclays (BARC.L), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Citigroup (C.N).
It occupies around 350,000 square feet, or roughly a third of the office space at the 25 Bank Street tower that previously served as Lehman Brothers' European headquarters.
The east of London site, the UK's second-largest business district, is famed for its high-rise skyline and has become a symbol for Britain's financial sector turmoil.
But the site remains close to full occupancy despite hundreds of redundancies among its key residents, says Songbird Estates SBDb.L, Canary Wharf's AIM-listed majority owner. Continued...
