LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays (LON:BARC) has signed an agreement with Canary Wharf Group (CWG) to extend the lease on its British headquarters in the financial district until 2039, CWG said on Thursday.
The British bank, which in 2021 said it was exiting one of its other offices in Canary Wharf to cut costs, said it will extend its tenure at the flagship One Churchill Place building by five years.
The move comes as a significant boost to CWG, after HSBC (LON:HSBA), a key occupier on the estate, announced earlier this year it would leave its longstanding headquarters in the regenerated docklands district in favour of a smaller office in the City of London.
The commercial real estate market globally has struggled to bounce back after many office workers continued to work from home at least some of the week since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barclays' decision to extend its stay in Canary Wharf also comes amid a wider review into its cost base, as Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan prepares to present a strategy update to the bank's long-suffering shareholders in February. The bank's shares have fallen 17% in the last two years.
The British bank is working on plans to save as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion), which could involve cutting as many as 2,000 jobs, Reuters reported last month.
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