JPMorgan Chase is in talks to buy a Dublin office building as it considers expanding in Ireland after the UK's vote to leave the EU, sources said.
The lender is negotiating the potential purchase of a building in Dublin’s Capital Dock that is being developed by a venture between Kennedy Wilson Holdings and Nama, the sources said.
The building, at 200 Capital Dock, has about 130,000sq ft (12,000sq m) of space, they added. That is enough for more than 1,000 workers. The company already employs about 500 in Ireland.
“Other options are still very much on the table. We want to see how negotiations progress,” JPMorgan said in a statement. “No final decisions have been made.”
Nama and Kennedy Wilson declined to comment.
British prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to pull Britain out of the European single market has prompted international banks to begin looking to move jobs to other EU countries. Estimates for the number who could move range from 4,000 to more than 200,000.
“There will inevitably be some staff who will be asked to consider relocation,” Daniel Pinto, JPMorgan’s investment bank head, and Mary Callahan Erdoes, chief executive of asset management, said in a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg.
Many variables
“We will notify you as soon as we are prepared to make changes that may impact your specific business,” they said, emphasising the complexity and the “many variables” in the decision.
Staff were told a conclusion would not be rushed.
Dublin is known to be among the locations being considered by JPMorgan for an enlarged EU hub following the Brexit vote.
Before the June 23rd referendum, chief executive Jamie Dimon told UK staff that as many as 4,000 people could be relocated in the event of Brexit. In January he said that number could depend on how the UK government's negotiations play out. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg/Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017
