Public limited company | |
Industry | Real estate |
Founded | 1993 |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people
|
Sir George Iacobescu (Chairman and CEO) |
Services | Real estate development |
£369.6 million (ending 2008) | |
Website | group |
Canary Wharf Group plc is a British property company headquartered in London, England. It is the owner and developer of nearly 100 acres (0.40 km2) of property at Canary Wharf and elsewhere in London. Over the last 10 years it has constructed more office space in London than any other developer. The group owns 7,900,000 square feet (730,000 m2) of property which is worth £4.9 billion, of which 95.6% was let as of 30 June 2012.
The company was formed in 1993 as Canary Wharf Limited to acquire the former assets of Olympia and York from its Administrator.
In December 1995, the company was acquired by an international consortium, including Olympia and York founder Paul Reichmann.
In April 1999, the company floated on the .
In 2004, a majority of the company was acquired by Glick Family Investments and Morgan Stanley using an investment vehicle company called Songbird Acquisitions, which was later taken over by China Investment Corporation.
The group owns Canary Wharf Contractors, a business which has built most of the buildings at Canary Wharf.
Several large transport projects have been constructed which link to Canary Wharf, including the Jubilee Line Extension and Crossrail.
The Canary Wharf Group agreed to pay £500m over 24 years towards the £3.5bn cost of the Jubilee Line extension. The actual payments was reduced by at least £25m because the line was unable to run at the capacity agreed, mostly due to the collapse of Metronet.
The links between Canary Wharf Group and Transport for London remain strong, with Canary Wharf's Finance Director Peter Anderson on the board of TfL and chairing its finance and policy committee.
In 2014, the Canary Wharf Group campaigned against two Cycle Superhighway routes in central London, dubbed "Crossrail for bikes". The Group anonymously distributed a briefing paper claiming the project would be "extremely damaging to London".