News | Real Estate

Monday 16th October 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin has advised Jesta Capital Corporation, the Canadian based property company, on the sale of two City of London office buildings for £96.5 million to a new Greater London Office Fund set up by Warner Estate Holdings and Barclays Capital.  The two properties: 55 Old Broad Street, EC2 and Central House, Camperdown Street, E1, provide a combined current rental income of £5.13 million.

The SJ Berwin team was led by real estate partner Nick Minkoff with partner Laura O’Neill advising on corporate issues. Warner Estate Holdings was advised by Norton Rose real estate partner David Sinclair and corporate partner Adam Kirby, with Mark Rees-Jones of Clifford Chance advising Warner on the finance issues.  Barclays Capital was advised by real estate partner Imogen Moss of Allen and Overy.

Jesta Capital Corporation is a Canadian based property company which has been extremely active in the UK and French markets in the past two years. SJ Berwin had advised on the acquisition of these properties last year.

For further information please contact:

Nicholas Minkoff  on +44 (0) 20 7111 2599, email nick.minkoff@sjberwin.com  or Karen Roberts on + 44 (0) 20 7111 2578, email karen.roberts@sjberwin.com      

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
  
  
• SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards .  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
  
  
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 21 are partners in London and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners in London and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
  
  
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
  
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.