Geneva-based private bank Pictet is selling its headquarters to Germany's Deka Immobilien, a real estate giant. But this deal has nothing to do with staff working from home or the pandemic.
Pictet's main offices at 60 Route des Acacias will be sold to Deka Immobilien, the Geneva-based private bank said in a statement Thursday. The bank's offices, which were only inaugurated in 2006, will remain at the building, however, because Pictet is keeping them under a sale-and-leaseback agreement.
The reason for this deal is the construction of a new building planned for 2025. The bank will own this new building, according to Pictet. But because holding real estate on the balance sheet of financial institutions has become «prohibitively» expensive due to regulators' capital and liquidity requirements, the current main building must now make way.
New Center Due in 2025
The sale comes at an opportune moment for the bank, it writes. The deal with the German real estate firm, one of the world's largest in the sector, will allow Pictet to self-finance its new property in Geneva.
Pictet's new development property, called «Campus Pictet de Rochemont», will house around 2,500 workplaces and 100 apartments in a quadrangle of buildings. With its construction concept, energy consumption and barrier-free access, the building will set environmental standards, the bank writes. At its center will be a public park.
