The sale of 30 St Mary Axe, otherwise known as The Gherkin, was arguably the most iconic building sold in London, and perhaps the world, during 2014.

It was unique because it was an extremely well-known building internationally, it was 100 per cent leased, 100 per cent income producing, and a triple-net lease which means that all of the costs were covered by the tenants. So you could say, as an investment, it was 100 per cent.

It was, however, quite a complicated asset sale. 

We had to tailor our campaign carefully so that we could be sure we had reached all the stakeholders out there. 95 per cent of our audience could be reached with a normal campaign but it was the remaining five per cent that required us to really prove our outstanding global reach.

We wanted it to be a swift transaction; we wanted the investors to come in and make their bid on an educated basis so that there were no questions, no conditionality or limited conditionality to their bids.

We received just over ten bids. The Gherkin had been valued a year or so previously at about £580 million and we thought that we could get closer to £650 million. Eventually The Gherkin was sold for £700 million, exceeding almost everyone’s expectation.

On November 10, 2014, contracts were exchanged on 30 St Mary Axe - The Gherkin.

Here's how we did it: