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Bloomberg
British Airways is considering putting its sprawling headquarters in London up for sale as the flagship UK carrier plans for a so-called hybrid approach to working, according to an
internal email.
The airline has hired a specialist property company to gauge if a sale of the building, known as Waterside, would be beneficial, Stuart Kennedy, BA’s director of people, wrote in an email to staff. He said the carrier was weighing ways of blending elements of remote working along with office-based work and was seeking views from staff about how the company should go about it.
BA, part of IAG SA, has sold art, retired old airplanes and cut thousands of staff in a bid to survive the decimation of aviation brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Kennedy said it was still early days, and that a sale of Waterside was just one of the options available to the carrier.
Designed by Norwegian architect Niels A. Torp, Waterside was opened in 1998 and consists of six areas, each representing a continent that BA served.
A BA spokesman said in an email that the carrier had restructured its business to emerge from the crisis and confirmed it was considering whether it still needed such a large headquarters. The Financial Times earlier reported on the possible sale.
2008 in Delhi, the company employs more than 5,000 people, according to its website. Zomato recently raised $250 million from investors including Kora Management and Fidelity Management & Research Co., valuing the startup at $5.4 billion, according to an exchange filing in February by Info Edge India Ltd., an existing backer.
The pandemic has driven many Indian consumers to shift their spending online, bolstering the fortunes of e-commerce firms like Zomato as they aim to go public. Nykaa E-Retail Pvt, backed by TPG Capital, is planning to list the company in the local market and to seek a valuation of at least $3 billion, Bloomberg News has reported.
Global IPO volumes are heading for the best quarter since at least 2009 with more than $188 billion raised so far this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.