KPMG recruit lawyers to help with London office switch

KPMG HAS recruited legal help with its planned office move from Salisbury Square to Canary Wharf. 

Eversheds and Travers advised the Big Four firm on its planned relocation from Salisbury Square to 30 North Colonnade in Canary Wharf, Accountancy Age’s sister publication Legal Week reports.

From 2015, KPMG will occupy 200,000 sq ft across the top eight floors of the North building, which is owned in a joint venture by Fimalac and Hearst Corporation. 

Approximately 1,100 staff will be relocating to Canary Wharf to work alongside the 5,000 staff that is already based next door at 15 Canada Square.

Eversheds is advising KPMG with a team led by London real estate partners Bruce Dear and Richard Lampert, along with Cardiff real estate partner Nefydd Jones, while Travers advised the North Colonnade JV led by real estate partner Simon Rutman.

Dear (pictured) said: “The transaction had a complex structure to give KPMG all of the extensive site rights which they required and to provide them with security of landlord performance.”

The news comes after it emerged last week that KPMG is looking to recruit a team of corporate lawyers in Manchester as the accountancy giant weighs up an alternative business structure conversion as part of a push to expand its legal services offering.

Meanwhile, the role for Eversheds comes after the firm also took up a role for UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) – the holding company for the government-owned businesses of Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock – on its £400m sale of unsecured loans to OneSavings Bank and Marlin Financial Group.

The sale was completed as two separate transactions, with the performing loans acquired by OneSavings and the remainder of the portfolio acquired by Marlin. The Eversheds team was led by Cardiff partner Philip Vaughan while OneSavings and Marlin were advised by an Addleshaw Goddard team led by Leeds finance partner Rosanna Bryant.