One of Aberdeen’s most iconic buildings is being put up for sale after its owner went into administration.
Talisman House – home to the UK headquarters of Canadian oil and gas firm Talisman Energy – belonged to property holding company Norwood (Manchester).
Norwood was hit by a severe downturn in the commercial-property market, affecting its ability to repay a £21million loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
John Reid and Brian Milne, of professional service firm Deloitte, were appointed joint administrators in March after RBS had gone to the High Court seeking Norwood’s insolvency.
A creditor meeting will take place in Glasgow on Friday.
Documents lodged at Companies House show Talisman has tenancy of the Holburn Street building on a long-term lease until December 2025. The joint administrators said a variety of strategies for the lease arrangement were being looked at to “enable the achievement of the optimal outcome for all creditors”.
Mr Reid and Mr Milne added: “The administrators are engaged in dialogue with the tenant and their agents as regards potential variations to the lease, particularly with regard to the forthcoming rent review in December 2010 and the tenant’s break option in December 2015.
“To maximise realisations for creditors, the property will be exposed to the open market to assess the level of interest from potential investors.”
The joint administrators also said they already received several expressions of interest in the building, which took shape around the turn of the millennium.
Talisman moved into the property, on the site of the old College of Commerce, early in 2001.
Abbreviated accounts for Norwood, for the year to March 31, 2009, put the value of Talisman House at £27.34million. The administrators have said there may not be enough funds available to repay all of Norwood’s debt to the bank and almost certainly nothing – other than an estimated £18,000 prescribed by law – for unsecured creditor claims of about £7million, mainly from the property firm’s partners.