How Savills International sold The Gherkin

How Savills International sold The Gherkin
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

The sale of 30 St Mary Axe, otherwise known as The Gherkin, was arguably the most iconic building sold in London, and perhaps the world, during 2014.

Selling agents Savills said it was unique because it was an extremely well-known building internationally, it was 100% leased, 100% income producing, and a triple-net lease which means that all of the costs were covered by the tenants.

"So you could say, as an investment, it was 100%," Savills' Stepehn Down said.

It was, however, quite a complicated asset sale. 

"We had to tailor our campaign carefully so that we could be sure we had reached all the stakeholders out there. 95% of our audience could be reached with a normal campaign but it was the remaining five% that required us to really prove our outstanding global reach," Down said.

"We wanted it to be a swift transaction; we wanted the investors to come in and make their bid on an educated basis so that there were no questions, no conditionality or limited conditionality to their bids.

"We received just over 10 bids. 

"The Gherkin had been valued a year or so previously at about £580 million and we thought that we could get closer to £650 million.

"Eventually The Gherkin was sold for £700 million, exceeding almost everyone’s expectation."

On November 10, 2014, contracts were exchanged on The Gherkin.

A video produced by Savills explaining the process is viewable on their website.

Photo: Creative Commons

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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