Linklaters

Buying and selling real estate for investment purposes has become more complex and is often structured in a complex fashion, featuring cross-border elements. Leading global investors, developers, occupiers and financial institutions with major space requirements choose Linklaters to advise on their largest and most complex or multi-jurisdictional real estate transactions and disputes.

Cross-border experience and in-depth industry knowledge give the firm a significant competitive advantage. Linklaters’ real estate team includes global specialists in real estate M&A, real estate investment and development, real estate finance and tax, real estate funds, derivatives and structured finance and real estate disputes, environment and planning/zoning.

The global real estate group is at the forefront of new developments, such as the creation of real estate investment trusts (REITs) across the world. Using a wide range of innovative and complex structures, Linklaters’ real estate M&A lawyers help clients to mitigate risk and tax costs and enhance returns on their transactions. The group is also renowned for its cutting-edge expertise in structured and securitised cross-border real estate finance transactions.

Recent real estate transactions include advising:

• Union Investment on its €316 million acquisition of a 91% stake in the Alexa shopping centre in Berlin
• BBVA on its £110m+ acquisition of the half-completed five-star hotel redevelopment of Marconi House on the Strand in London

• HSBC on the sale and leasebacks of its global HQ office tower at Canary Wharf in London and its Paris HQ on the Champs-Elysées

• AREA Property Partners (formerly Apollo Real Estate) on several deals including its (and Europa Capital's) JV with Deutsche Bank-owned RREEF Alternative Investments to purchase and leaseback 947 assets (predominantly bank branches with an aggregate value of EUR1.15 billion) from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Spain's second largest bank
• Swiss Re on the £600 million sale and leaseback of its iconic tower building at 30 St Mary Axe (aka the ‘Gherkin’), at the time, the UK’s largest ever single-building investment transaction
• St Martin’s Property Corporation (Kuwait Investment Authority’s real estate subsidiary) on its Asian debut – the ¥13 billion (c. €110 million) acquisition of a 27-storey residential tower in Tokyo
• Telereal on the £750 million acquisition and acquisition financing of Land Securities Trillium
• the purchaser on the acquisition from Unibail-Rodamco of a trophy building on the rue du Faubourg St Honoré in Paris
• Nomura Real Estate UK Limited on the establishment of an offshore joint venture with Kajima Properties (Europe) Ltd – Nomura’s first European real estate acquisition
• SEB Immobilien on the acquisition of Shanghai’s landmark Platinum Building – the first investment in China by any German open-ended real estate investment fund
• PwC, as Administrators of Lehman Bros, on its European real estate investment portfolio and UK premises
• the Polish Government on the construction of a new €350 million national stadium in Warsaw
• Svenska Handelsbanken, Nordea Bank, Skandanaviska Enskilda Banken and Danske Bank on the €1.6 billion debt financing for the €4.4 billion (property value) acquisition of Vasakronan
• Mubadala Development on the US$2 billion+ development of Al Sowa Island as a new financial centre for Abu Dhabi
• HANSAInvest on its £136 million acquisition of One London Wall