JP Morgan snaps up Lehman's former Canary Wharf HQ

AMERICAN banking giant JP Morgan has bought the former Lehman Brothers building in London's Canary Wharf for its investment banking operation, while keeping its options open on plans to erect a new skyscraper nearby to house its European headquarters.

JP Morgan paid 495 million for the Bank Street premises, seller Canary Wharf Group (CWG) said yesterday, adding that the two groups would continue to develop the nearby Riverside South site.

The bank will move into the building from 2012. JP Morgan, which snapped up Bear Stearns for a nominal sum in the wake of the credit crunch in early 2008, is still reviewing its plans for Riverside South, John Garwood, secretary of Songbird Estates, majority owner of CWG, said. The site will potentially have a much larger building.

Garwood said: "They're (JPMorgan] going to review what their future requirements are going to be and they'll be looking at carrying on with a full design over the years to come.

"But short term, we'll be building it up to street level and then we'll obviously also be reviewing what's best to go on that site."

In Lehman's heyday, before its crash in autumn 2008 precipitated the worldwide banking crisis, the Canary Wharf building in Bank Street was full of expensive marble, deep carpets and expensive artwork.

JPMorgan and the CWG, which owns most of Canary Wharf, stopped building a new headquarters on the Riverside South site earlier this year.

It sparked speculation JPMorgan would axe the project, against a backdrop of negative sentiment against banks in the wake of the financial crisis

But JP Morgan's chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon said: "These properties are long-term investments and represent our continued commitment to London as one of the world's most important financial centres."