By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM – Israel’s Property and Building Corp stated Sunday that it would sell the HSBC Tower in Manhattan for $855 Million to New York-based property firm Innovo Property Group. The transaction resulted in a $45M net loss.

Discount Investment Corp is 63% owner of the Israeli company. It said that it has also sold properties in Israel for 390 M Shekels (123 Million).

Doron Cohen is the chief executive officer of Property and Building and Discount. He stated that management was focused on Israel’s income-producing properties and that it would be able to use the money it received from both transactions to further this goal.

Cohen stated that the sale of the HSBC Building was achieved despite the “gloomy” forecasts regarding the U.S. Commercial Real Estate Market.

Tivoli Village is an exclusive apartment building in Las Vegas, that he mentioned. It may be up for sale to raise liquidity or reduce debt.

Property and Building, along with the conglomerate Koor Industries, purchased the 30-storey, 80,000-square-metre HSBC Tower for $353million in 2009. Property purchased Koor Industries’ stake in the tower with a 99 percent occupancy. In the 1990s, HSBC bought the building.

Property and Building reported that the HSBC Tower’s value was $864 Million as of September 30. The company claimed that the net profit from this sale would be $45million after costs.

Innovo can advance the sale date and receive options for a second delay of up to 30 calendar days.

According to property, the net cash flow after sale will be $343 million.

In afternoon trading in Tel Aviv, its shares fell 0.7%

($1 = 3.1605 shekels)