Over a thousand years since the Vikings last invaded the U.K., a fresh incursion is on the cards as Norwegian-backed real estate companies Capco and Shaftsbury are poised to merge.
The two real estate companies own large chunks of London’s West End property estates, while backer Norges Bank –Norway’s huge sovereign wealth fund – already jointly owns London’s famous Regent Street after a ‘deal of the decade’ acquisition made in 2010. The firms added that the merger would create a real estate investment trust focussed on London’s West End with a portfolio of some 1.8 million sq ft of retail and hospitality space “in high-profile destinations including Covent Garden, Carnaby, Chinatown and Soho”. “We are pleased with the strong level of leasing demand for Covent Garden which has contributed to a valuation uplift,” Hawksworth said during the same month.