Edmond de Rothschild is selling property in Switzerland, including five offices in Geneva. The proceeds? A three-digit million Swiss franc sum.
The Swiss private bank is selling its property portfolio to PSP Swiss Property. The sale includes five Rothschild offices in Geneva, where the private bank is based, according to a statement from PSP on Monday. The property firm said the portfolio has a value of roughly 190 million Swiss francs.
The sale encompasses a total of 15,400 square meters of prime office space in nine locations. Rothschild will remain the main or only tenant in all of them. Besides the five Genevan locations including Rothschild's asset management base on Rue de l'Arquebuse, two in Lugano and one each in Fribourg and Lausanne will also be sold to PSP.
Rothschild's headquarters in Geneva's Rue de Hesse, home to its private banking activities, isn't part of the deal.
Raising Funds
Edmond de Rothschild, which didn't respond to finews.com when asked for the reasons for the disposal, is in good company. Credit Suisse has sold a host of prime Zurich real estate including the Metropol, former home of Clariden Leu, to Switzerland's central bank. It also sold Uetlihof, a hive of office space in Zurich's outskirts, to big shareholder Norges and the art nouveau-style Bank Leu headquarters to Swatch.
For Credit Suisse, offloading valuable real estate was a quick and easy way to bolster its depleted capital. Edmond de Rothschild, with a solvency ratio of more than 25 percent, doesn't have those worries.
