THE main Battersea Power Station building that houses Apple Inc.’s UK headquarters and an expansive shopping mall have been put up for sale.
The Malaysian owners of the complex have appointed BNP Paribas to advise on a potential sale after receiving expressions of interest from investors looking to acquire it, a person familiar with the process said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. No guide price has been set for the building which was last sold in 2019 in a transaction valuing it at almost £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion). Green Street News earlier reported the potential sale.
The power station and the surrounding area were bought by a consortium including Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund, SP Setia Bhd
and Sime Darby Berhad for about £400 million in 2012 as they embarked on one of London’s largest ever redevelopment projects. Permodalan Nasional Bhd and EPF bought the commercial elements of the project, which include the offices and stores in the main power station building, from the wider consortium in 2019.
The sale process does not include the apartments in the power station or those developed in separate buildings on the rest of the site which are still owned by the original consortium, Green Street reported.
A spokesperson for BNP Paribas declined to comment. Representatives for EPF, PNB and Battersea Power Station Development Company, which manages the site and led the redevelopment work on behalf of the consortium, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple agreed to lease about 500,000 square feet (46,452 square meters) of space in the power station in 2016. The building was refinanced with a £1.1 billion debt facility last year from Standard Chartered Plc, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Malayan Banking Berhad, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd.
A sale of the power station would be among the largest UK real estate deals since interest rates began rising at the end of 2021.
The former power station, which adorned the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals, spent decades as a symbol of London’s industrial decline. After being decommissioned in 1983 a series of redevelopment proposals were considered for the site until its eventual rescue from bankruptcy by the Malaysian consortium in 2012. - Bloomberg
