Deutsche Bank commits to London with new UK headquarters

[LONDON] Deutsche Bank AG is in exclusive talks to move its UK headquarters to a building being constructed at 21 Moorfields in the City of London financial district.

Germany's biggest bank is negotiating with Land Securities Group Plc on a 25-year lease for the building, with staff due to start moving across in 2023, according to a memo sent to the lender's staff and seen by Bloomberg News. The developer Friday confirmed that it's in talks with Deutsche Bank over an advance rental that would require changes to the building's design.

Corporate demand for office space in London has fallen in the wake of the Brexit vote, with BNP Paribas SA estimating that firms leased 19 per cent less space in central London in 2016 than a year earlier. Deutsche Bank, which is in the process of overhauling its businesses, said this month that the next phase of its plan will cause additional job losses. In 2015, it predicted that 9,000 jobs would be eliminated through 2018.

"The move underlines the bank's commitment to the City of London and the importance it attaches to being an employer of choice in the capital," Garth Ritchie, Deutsche Bank's UK chief executive officer, said in the memo. "It will advance the bank's strategic goals of increasing efficiency, reducing complexity and strengthening links between the business divisions and infrastructure functions."

Deutsche Bank's move is subject to the lease being agreed to and the building gaining planning consent, according to the memo. Land Securities, which didn't comment on the other details of the talks, said negotiations will take several months and there is no guarantee they will lead to a transaction.

BLOOMBERG

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