Don Kenobi
/ 83.5.232.* / 2009-06-19 15:24
Billionaire property investor Simon Halabi’s real estate companies defaulted on 1.15 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) of bonds backed by nine London office buildings as the recession cut the value of the properties by about 50 percent.
The properties, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s offices at 125 London Wall and 60 Victoria Embankment, are now worth less than the value of the loans that back them, loan manager Hatfield Philips International Ltd. said in a statement today.
The buildings were valued at 929 million pounds as of June 8, down from 1.83 billion pounds in October 2006, Hatfield Philips said. Halabi’s companies borrowed against the buildings in 2006. The debt, which was packaged into bonds, expires in October. It’s the U.K.’s largest mortgage bond issue maturing this year