Novartis puts its Spanish headquarters in Barcelona up for sale
The Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis has put up for sale its historic corporate headquarters in Spain, located on Gran Via in Barcelona, due to the increase in teleworking, although it will remain as a tenant in part of the building, as confirmed to Efe by company sources.
According to information published on Wednesday by Cinco Días, the main candidate to take over the building is the German group Freo, for around 40 million euros.
The arrival of the pandemic has accelerated teleworking and Novartis offers workers great flexibility to work at home.
The company explained that in the past, 100% of the workforce used to go to the office, which is no longer the case, as workers can now opt for a more flexible model of unassigned workstations and laptops to work from anywhere, so the company no longer needs so much space in the building.
The same sources have disassociated this operation from the employment regulation plan (ERE) announced by the company last week, which will affect between 220 and 240 people in Spain, mainly in Catalonia, and which the company attributed to organisational causes.
The building, which employs some 700 people, is located at number 764 Gran Vía, near Plaza de Glòries.
