Fubon Life is to buy a London office property for £138.8m (€177.5m).
The property’s seller, LondonMetric Property, announced the sale of One Carter Lane in the City district of the UK capital.
Earlier this year, Fubon Life said it was targeting European real estate for its first overseas investment in the asset class.
The insurer, a unit of Taiwan’s second-largest financial holding company, has “a close working relationship” with some local advisers in Europe, according Howard Lin, CIO at Fubon Financial Holdings.
In addition to London, the company, which had $74bn (€54bn) in assets under management in March, is also looking at Paris, as well as major German cities.
In July, Cathay Life Insurance was reportedly moving in on the acquisition of a London office property, its first in the UK.
The Taiwan institutional will pay around £320m for the Woolgate Exchange building – also in the City district.
The Taiwanese government’s decision to relax rules on foreign real estate investments has put major European cities on the Taiwanese institutional radar.
The government’s move was aimed at curbing high domestic property prices.
LondonMetric said it would receive a non-refundable £6.94m deposit from Fubon Life on the 129,081sqft long-leasehold property.
Completion of the sale is expected to take place in January next year. The building is 73% let.
LondonMetric paid £75m for the property in 2011, spending £15m on a refurbishment.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said now was the right time to sell the property, releasing cash for reinvestment in core retail and retail distribution.
