Spanish retail billionaire zeroes in on £600m London building deal
A Spanish retail billionaire who owns fashion chain Zara is close to acquiring a West End office block for £600m.
Amancia Ortega, via his real estate investment vehicle Pontegadea, is set to acquire The Post Building a 320,000 sq ft development in an ex-Royal Mail sorting office on Museum Street in Holborn.
A deal is expected to go through this week, with preliminary terms having been agreed in October.
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The building is owned by Oxford Properties and Brockton Capital.
It is let to firms including management consultancy Mckinsey & Co, insurance firm Rothesay Life and fitness firm 1rebel.
Property agent Cushman and Wakefield is acting for Pontegadea and JLL is acting for the sellers.
According to React News, Pontegadea saw off competition from a heavyweight group of investors from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
US investment manager Invesco and Chinese firm Hengli Group were both reportedly interested in the building but did not make the final round of bidders.
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Ortega, who is Europe’s richest man, has commercial property assets worth nearly €10bn (£8.6bn) at the end of 2018.
Ortega has used the huge dividend payments from his Inditex retail empire to make largely debt-free purchases of buildings ranging from prime shopping real estate in New York and London to office buildings in the centre of Madrid.
Pontegadea’s annual results showed real estate assets of €9.7bn at the end of 2018.
Pontegadea, Cushman and Wakefield and JLL declined to comment.