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- <text id=92TT1151>
- <title>
- May 25, 1992: How Failed a Foundation
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- May 25, 1992 Waiting For Perot
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 20
- BUSINESS
- How Failed a Foundation
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Giant developer Olympia & York topples into bankruptcy court
- </p>
- <p> From the classy World Financial Center in Manhattan to the
- 71-acre Canary Wharf office complex in London, Olympia & York
- has changed the face of some of the world's great cities. But
- last week the biggest builder on earth sought shelter in
- bankruptcy court in Toronto and New York City after its owners,
- Canada's secretive Reichmann brothers, struggled vainly for
- months to restructure $12 billion of debt. While the action
- marked one of the largest real estate bankruptcies ever, it
- covered only a portion of Olympia & York's vast holdings --
- including its 72-story Toronto headquarters and the rest of its
- Canadian operations. Notably absent were the firm's U.S. real
- estate and its troubled $5.4 billion Canary Wharf project, whose
- 40% vacancy rate has been one of the company's biggest
- headaches.
- </p>
- <p> The huge bankruptcy filing drove down bank stocks Friday
- and sent shock waves through world financial markets. Citibank,
- Olympia & York's largest U.S. creditor, said it has written off
- $100 million of the $480 million it had loaned to the Canadian
- company. Such losses could grow in the U.S. and abroad if
- Olympia & York cannot climb out of the deepening financial hole
- it has dug for itself.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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