Kleinwort Benson’s Mayfair office sold to Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau’s Chinese Estates for £122m
An property investment firm controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau has snapped up Kleinwort Benson's London headquarters in Mayfair for £121.7m.
Chinese Estates has agreed to buy 14 St George Street from Aberdeen Asset Management, the pair announced today, in a deal representing a 3.5 per cent yield.
Designed by Eric Parry, the four-storey building comprises 51,861 square feet and is located on Bond Street, close to the entrance to the Elizabeth Line.
It is fully let to Kleinwort Benson and Trafigura, the Swiss commodity trader until 2020. The average passing rent is £86.88 per sq ft.
Colliers International advised Aberdeen Asset Management on the sale.
Chinese Estates also owns Goldman Sachs' offices at River Court, 120 Fleet Street, which they bought in 2011 for around £300m. The St George Street building is believed to be its first acquisition since.
Lau, who owns around two thirds of Chinese Estates, recently made the headlines after buying a 12.03-carat "Blue Moon" diamond for his seven-year-old daughter at Sotheby's auction in Geneva, breaking the record for the most expensive diamond ever sold at a auction.
His fortune, according to Forbes, is estimated to be worth around $13.4bn.
In 2012, he was found guilty of corruption in a land deal in Asia's gambling capital of Macau and sentenced to five years in prison. He has been appealing the conviction.