https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/property/on-the-quest-of-a-wave-cork-office-block-for-sale-for-21-million-848663.html
A sad development of the colorful times we live in.
6 replies (most recent on top)
Cork has become a "high cost" center and many companies are looking for the next "bargain basement" location to move too. As the economy improves, they're having to pay more and that hurts the bottom line (especially in a company like Quest). Best guess is that they'll open a new site in a cheaper country and there will be a corresponding layoff in Cork. Not all at the same time since that would violate EU rules but Cork is simply too expensive to maintain.
Any buyers as yet? what will happen to the folks in Cork?
Have to agree with last poster. Equity release on your HQ is a desperate signal with short term focus
If only that was the reason that they're doing it. The real reason is because sales (and therefore revenue) is down and they're having "garage sales" on all properties. For most of the properties that they sold, they're now paying more for leasing it back than they paid to own it. It does free some cash but that cash is only used to make up for poor sales. Once you're out of things to sell, you're in trouble and they're hoping to have the company on the sale block before then.
Surprised it took so long, given their continued scale back of the workforce, it makes sense to sell and leaseback with favourable terms, like a clause to review occupancy rate every six months … it increases flexibility while providing cash that can be returned to investors to pay a dividend … hedge fund practices.
All of the US based properties were sold last year to make up for the dismal sales numbers. Now it's Cork's turn. As they wind down the Cork operations, the new building owner will be able to make a ton of money and Quest will have some cash in hand to boost their yearly numbers to they look better to the next buyer.