AAPL Apple Inc

By Stu Woo and Art Patnaude 

LONDON--Silicon Valley giant Apple Inc. said Wednesday that it planned to relocate 1,400 employees to a new London campus in 2021, in a sign that international corporations remain committed to the U.K. after June's Brexit vote.

British lawmakers praised Apple's decision as a vote of confidence in the British economy, the world's fifth largest. The commitment also buoyed one of Europe's biggest regeneration projects, an initiative to redevelop an area on the south bank of the River Thames.

Apple, the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, said in a statement that it wanted to move its London-based workers to one location. Its new offices will be in Battersea Power Station, an iconic former coal-fired plant featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals" and in the 2008 Batman film "The Dark Knight."

Apple representatives didn't respond to requests for further comment. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has said it has 22,000 employees across Europe. Its European headquarters is in Ireland, where it employs more than 5,500 people.

U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond said Apple's new campus reaffirmed both Britain's business environment and London's tech leadership. Though small by Silicon Valley standards, the London tech industry has become Europe's hub because of its nearby top-flight universities and established venture-capital firms.

Since the referendum vote to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May's government has worked to convince investors that Britain is open for business and will work to secure a good trade deal with Europe. She has pointed to SoftBank Group Corp.'s $32 billion acquisition of U.K.-based ARM Holdings PLC, announced in July, as a sign of confidence in the country.

But economic data released since the June referendum have painted a mixed picture of the U.K. economy. While some surveys suggested it slowed in July, others showed activity has since recovered.

About 2 miles west of Big Ben, Battersea Power Station was decommissioned in 1983. Various attempts to redevelop the 42-acre site failed until 2012, when a group of Malaysian investors kicked off the current project at an estimated cost of GBP8 billion ($10.4 billion). Developers aim to sell high-end condominiums and rent out office and shop space.

Battersea Power Station is itself part of a bigger project called Nine Elms, on a 480-acre site along the riverbank. Cranes and other construction machinery dominate the area, where the U.S. is set to finish its new embassy later this year. Plans also include 20,000 new homes, schools, parks and a new subway station.

Real-estate experts have warned of the proliferation of high-end condominium developments sold to foreign investors, saying they constitute one of the U.K. property sectors at the greatest risk of a downturn after Brexit.

Giles Turner contributed to this article.

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Art Patnaude at art.patnaude@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 28, 2016 12:28 ET (16:28 GMT)

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