HSBC France has sold its head office buildings on the Champs-Elysées and Rue Vernet in Paris in a EUR 400 mln sale-and-leaseback transaction with private investors represented by French Properties Management.

The sale by the banking group will be completed with a subsidiary of a French OPCI (Organisme de Placement Collectif Immobilier) vehicle established for the transaction. The deal is conditional on the City of Paris not exercising its pre-emption right to buy the buildings in the two-month period immediately after the agreement. HSBC France has agreed to lease the buildings for nine years, with break clauses in years four, five and six.

The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2010.

French Properties Management is a real estate asset manager acting in France for private investors.

Over the past two months, HSBC has sold its London headquarters at Canary Wharf to South Korea's National Pension Service for $1.3 bn, (EUR 900 mln) and its New York City building to Isreal's IDB Holding Corp for $330 mln.