New Judgment – Tour Des Finances NV GVBF v CBRE Loan Services Limited [2026] EWHC 2321 (Comm) 

Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE has handed down judgment in a claim about the largest and most valuable office building in Brussels, which was acquired by the Claimant in 2020 for €1.2 billion with a facility agreement provided by a syndicate of lenders. The Claimant commenced a claim in the Commercial Court to challenge a valuation of the property in the sum of €920 million, which had been obtained by the lenders’ agent, the Defendant, pursuant to the terms of the facility agreement. The level of the valuation was such as to give rise to a Cash Trap Event under the terms of the facility agreement, with the result that the rental income payable by the tenant (the Belgian government) in the sum of €74 million a year would be diverted to a blocked account before being used to pay down the debt under the facility agreement. The Claimant sought to challenge the valuation, and to establish that no Cash Trap Event had occurred, by contending that the valuation was tainted by actual or apparent bias or that there had been a material departure by the valuer from the instructions contained in an instruction letter provided to the valuer by the Defendant. The Judge held that there was no basis for any finding of actual bias; that apparent bias was not a valid legal ground on which to impugn a contractually binding expert determination (such as the valuation obtained by the Defendant pursuant to the facility agreement); and that the relevant instructions (for the purposes of any allegation of a material departure from instructions by the valuer) were those contained in the facility agreement (from which there was not alleged to have been any departure), rather than those contained in the instruction letter provided to the valuer by the Defendant (which was extra-contractual and hence irrelevant). Accordingly, the Judge dismissed the Claimant’s claim, holding that the valuation was valid under the terms of the facility agreement and that a Cash Trap Event had occurred under the facility agreement and was continuing.

Stephen Robins KC and Ryan Perkins appeared for the successful Defendant.

Read the full  judgment here