BDO advises Novartis on the sale of its site Basel Klybeck

On 22 May 2019, Novartis sold its property in the Basel Klybeck area to Central Real Estate Basel AG, a Swiss real estate developer. The Klybeck chemical and life science production site covers approximately 30 hectares and was jointly operated by Novartis and BASF as the remaining owners. The location with a unique heritage was the nucleus of the chemical industry in Basel and Switzerland. The Klybeck site hosted the headquarters of Ciba-Geigy, through whose merger with Sandoz in 1996, Novartis was created.

With the sale to an experienced real estate developer, Novartis pushes forward the development of the area located close to the city center of Basel and enables to realize the "Klybeck Plus" project, a development initiative launched with the canton of Basel-Stadt. The goal is to establish an urban area that offers space for living, work, leisure and culture.

The character of the site which is located in an urban area has changed fundamentally in the recent past: industrial and pharmaceutical production have lost their relevance, while laboratories and offices remained.

BDO advised Novartis comprehensively on this transaction as a financial advisor. BDO's advisory included the technical expertise of BDO Technik- und Umweltconsulting GmbH, BDO TUC. The multi-disciplinary BDO team was led by Hartmut Paulus, Partner and Head of Corporate Finance at BDO in Germany.