HSBC Says Evaluating Offers For HQ, Paris, NY Buildings

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) is evaluating offers it received for its headquarters in London and office buildings in New York and Paris, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The U.K.-based bank started marketing the buildings in April, in a move that could raise billions of dollars.

"We've marketed the buildings and have received expressions of interest. We are currently evaluating them," spokesman Patrick McGuinness said without elaborating.

News reports have put the price tag on the three buildings at about $2 billion.

HSBC's headquarters in London's Canary Wharf, which has an area of 1.1 million square feet, is the largest of the three properties. The other two are a building on Fifth Avenue in New York and another on Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris.

If sold, HSBC plans to lease back the properties, a person familiar with the situation has said.

HSBC has escaped the credit crisis relatively unscathed, thanks to its exposure to resilient economies in Asia and a strong balance sheet. Earlier this year, it raised GBP12.5 billion in a rights issue.

People familiar with the situation have said the bank is the front-runner to buy ING Groep NV's (ING) private banking assets in Asia and Europe. ING could fetch about $2 billion from the sales.

HSBC sold its London building before, to Metrovacesa SA for GBP1.09 billion in 2007, when the property sector was booming. It bought it back from the Spanish company in 2008, making a quick profit of about GBP250 million.

-By Patricia Kowsmann, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel [phone], [e-mail]