Brazil’s Itau bank seeks cheaper NY office space

Bloomberg

Brazil’s Itau Unibanco Holding SA plans to move out of its New York City office on the 50th floor of the General Motors Building, which features views of Central Park and some of the highest rents in Midtown, a person familiar with the matter said.
The firm, Latin America’s biggest bank by market value, is searching for a new location in Manhattan as part of a global cost-cutting effort, the person said, asking not to be identified because the plan hasn’t been publicly announced. The current office on Fifth Avenue employs about 150 people who handle corporate and investment banking, asset management and broker-dealer businesses for the Sao Paulo-based company.
Brazil’s economic and political crisis has hurt the credit quality of many of Itau’s customers and pared demand for investment-banking services. The bank last week reported a 10 percent drop in first-quarter profit on a surge in provisions for souring loans. Recurring net income, which excludes one-time items, slid to 5.24 billion reais ($1.5 billion) from 5.81 billion reais.
Rents in the Plaza District where the GM building is located averaged $90.70 a square foot in the first quarter, the highest in Midtown, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., a Chicago-based real estate and investment-management services company.