Thursday, Oct 11, 2007
Commercial Property not looking too hot!!
Times Online: RBS to offload £800m property portfolio
Royal Bank of Scotland is plotting to sell off £800 million of property, including the landmark Coutts building on London's Strand, in a sale and leaseback deal.
Posted by pecker @ 05:43 PM (546 views) Add Comment
8 Comments
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1. Yorkshireman said...
Will they get kicked out of the building 6 months after they lease it back ?
2. su said...
Does this mean RBS realises that the bubble is about to burst and is now selling with a view to renting, just like many contributors on this site?
3. pecker said...
Su, expect to see a new poster on here in a few days time called RBS-Sold2rent3 ;-)
4. trough2010 said...
perhaps RBS is running low on cash after taking over abn amro in a very cash-rich deal
5. planning4acrash said...
Nope, this will not burst any bubble. RBS will most likely generate its own loans (from thin air) to finance the buyers. This will be new money designed for additional supply, any default will involve the buildings returning back to the owner who generated the loan in the first place, so RBS will have created their own loan eco-system that is isolated from the rest of the property market. So this sale will do little to impact upon the national market.
6. cornishman said...
@planning (5)
That circular loan would be really neat wouldn't it? Sadly it's highly plausible. They should put you on the board. You could then draw a percentage fee...
7. planning4acrash said...
HSBC did it when they sold their tower, I think Barklay's did too. Guess what? They gave the buyer a very low interest rate!!
8. iguana said...
This has all of the hallmarks of a tax avoidance scheme, you finance the 'disposal' of your own property but continue to occupy it and reap the benefit of a major change in the nature of your supplies by way of business. You can also manipulate the rate at which the loan and the rental payments are made eg. front end loading. Barclays certainly did something like this. I expect that RBS/ABN will also arrange some sort of offshore scam, possibly even involving the properties - Mapeley springs to mind, but the taxman does not like to be reminded of that fiasco. ( a PFI project that transferred the Govt tax offices to a private co that promptly upped sticks and moved overseas to a tax haven!)