Olympia and York, Canary Wharf and what may be learned

Abstract

Addresses issues and questions in an evaluative review of the insolvency of office developer Olympia and York at Canary Wharf in 1992. Asks: what made a large, private company internationally vulnerable? Why could property cycles with their risks become internationalized, notwithstanding that sometimes spreading the internationalization of property could be considered as a useful means of pooling the risks? What was the nature of the office building cycle in London which was adapting its property needs to the internationalization of the financial sector in London, Tokyo and New York? What lessons emerge in the relationships between economics, finance and law in a new wave of insolvency proceedings under post‐1980 legislation? In terms of property market conditions, how can Paul Reichmann’s consortium’s repurchase of Canary Wharf be explained?

Citation

Pugh, C. (1996), "Olympia and York, Canary Wharf and what may be learned", Property Management, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/02637479610115503