The true stake Farhad Moshiri has in Liverpool's iconic Royal Liver Building has been revealed as the property agency tasked with selling it for £90m hit back after being criticised for the way it described the ownership of the famous landmark.
It was announced earlier this month that the building had been put up for sale for only the second time in its 111-year history and was to be marketed by CBRE. The landmark had previously been sold by Royal London to international property group Corestate Capital in 2017 for £48m, a deal which also involved the global real estate advisor.
When CBRE announced the sale, Corestate Capital was styled as the owner of the grade I-listed property, which is multi-let to major companies including Princes Foods, HSBC, Mott MacDonald, Grant Thornton and Everton Football Club. However, accounts for the Luxembourg-based group reveal it owns only 35% of the building while Everton FC owner Farhad Moshiri owns 49.9%.
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A national newspaper report at the weekend suggested buyers might have been "misled" by the description of Corestate in the sale announcement. But in response, a CBRE spokesperson said: "We were retained to sell the building earlier this year by Corestate Capital, the duly appointed asset manager and joint owner.
"Corestate has been our sole point of contact in relation to the building. It is standard practice in the real estate industry to be retained by and work for asset managers, who act as the owner’s representative and hold a significant equity interest, and it is wholly appropriate to refer to them as 'the owners'.
"The full ownership structure is, of course, fully disclosed to qualified prospective purchasers. In addition, Mr Moshiri’s ownership position in the building has been well reported."
According to the FT, a group of unnamed "international investors" are the other owners of the building.
