Canary Wharf Group plc is a British property company headquartered in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is the owner and developer of nearly of property at

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...

and elsewhere in London. Over the last 10 years it has constructed more office space in London than any other developer. The group owns of property which is worth £4.9 billion, of which 95.6% was let as of 30 June 2012.

History

The company was formed in 1993 as Canary Wharf Limited to acquire the former assets of

Olympia and York Olympia & York (also spelled as Olympia and York, abbreviated as O&Y) was a major international property development firm based in Toronto, Canada. The firm built major financial office complexes including Canary Wharf in London, the World Fina ...

from its administrator.Canary Wharf Group website: History
In December 1995, the company was acquired by an international consortium, including Olympia and York founder

Paul Reichmann Paul (Moshe Yosef) Reichmann ( he, משה יוסף רייכמן‎; 27 September 1930 – 25 October 2013) was a Canadian businessman and member of the Reichmann family. He is best known for his leadership of the Olympia & York real estate ...

. In April 1999, the company floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. In 2004, a majority of the company was acquired by Glick Family Investments and

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

using an investment vehicle company called Songbird Acquisitions, which was later taken over by

China Investment Corporation China Investment Corporation (CIC) ( Chinese: 中国投资有限责任公司; pinyin: ''zhōngguó tóuzī yǒuxiàn zérèn gōngsī'') is a sovereign wealth fund that manages part of the People's Republic of China's foreign exchange reserves. ...

. In 2015,

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management. It is responsible for the p ...

and

Qatar Investment Authority The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; ar, جهاز قطر للإستثمار) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. In 202 ...

took over Canary Wharf Group for £2.6 billion. Songbird was delisted following the takeover.

Structure

The group owns Canary Wharf Contractors, a business which has built most of the buildings at

. The Canary Wharf Group has also launched Vertus, a build-to-rent arm with properties under development in Canary Wharf.

Relationship with Transport for London

Several large transport projects have been constructed which link to

, including the Jubilee Line Extension and

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

. The Canary Wharf Group agreed to pay £500m over 24 years towards the £3.5bn cost of the Jubilee Line extension. The payment was reduced by at least £25m because the line was unable to run at the capacity agreed. Canary Wharf Group built the Canary Wharf railway station for Crossrail at a cost of around £500m, contributing £150m towards the station cost. The links between Canary Wharf Group and Transport for London remain strong, with Canary Wharf's Finance Director Peter Anderson previously on the board of Transport for London and chairing its finance and policy committee. The Canary Wharf Group has consistently campaigned against the now defunct Cycle Superhighway routes. In 2014, the Group opposed two cycle routes dubbed "Crossrail for bikes" by anonymously distributed a briefing paper claiming the project would be "extremely damaging to London". In 2018, Canary Wharf Group were a founding member of Unblock the Embankment, a campaign to remove segregated cycle route along the Embankment.

Property portfolio

Notable property addresses are: Outside Canary Wharf itself, CWG also developed

20 Fenchurch Street 20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed "The Walkie-Talkie" because of its distinctive shape, ...

and is redeveloping the

Shell Centre The Shell Centre in London is the global headquarters of oil major Shell plc. It is located on Belvedere Road in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a prominent feature on the South Bank of the River Thames near County Hall, and now forms ...

site in central London.

References

External links