BT head office sale hots up as Canary Wharf eyes deal

The race for BT’s historic central London headquarters is entering the final stages with bidders including Canary Wharf Group in the fray for the prime City development site, the Standard understands.

The struggling telecoms firm appointed agents Cushman & Wakefield to handle the sale of the Newgate Street base next to St Paul’s Cathedral in the summer as part of plans to save £1.5 billion. The sale is likely to fetch more than £200 million for BT because of the scarcity of major development sites in the City.

Sources said that the Docklands property giant was in “serious” discussions with BT over buying the site, which attracted strong initial interest before Christmas. Negotiations are said to focus on Canary Wharf bolstering BT with a knock-out price for the building while luring the business as its biggest tenant so far at its Wood Wharf development which is under construction and comprises 2 million square feet of office space and 3300 homes.

Landing BT would give Canary Wharf its first City scheme since it developed the Walkie-Talkie skyscraper with Land Securities. But other bidders are still in the mix, with a joint venture between European property investor Henderson Park and development manager CORE also said to be a strong contender.

BT’s new chief executive Philip Jansen is expected to sign off on the final decision soon after starting the job next month. The present headquarters — purpose built for the firm in the Eighties — stand on the site where Guglielmo Marconi made the first public transmission of wireless signals in 1896.

The move will end BT’s association with the site stretching back more than a century. BT and Canary Wharf declined to comment.