Beijing Capital Development Holdings, one of the largest state-owned real estate developers in China, has emerged victorious in a bidding process to acquire an office property in the City of London for £96.5 mln (€111 mln).
The building, Fleet Place House, comprises 8,542 m2 of Grade A office, retail and ancillary accommodation arranged over a basement, ground floor and eight upper storeys.
Property adviser BNP Paribas Real Estate was mandated to prepare the sale of the building by Grosvenor Europe, one of four operating companies of the privately owned international property business, Grosvenor Group. The ultimate vendor was Grosvenor London Office Fund (GLOF).
Following a competitive bidding process, which included domestic UK, American and Asian investors, the building is now being sold to Beijing Capital Development Holdings.
The Chinese company is referred to as Beijing SHOKAI.
Re-configuration
GLOF purchased Fleet Place House in 2013. Grosvenor substantially re-modelled the common areas and increased the building's amenities ahead of a programme of re-configuring the tenant line-up. It is now let to six tenants, including Just Eat, Samsung, Bevan Britain, Dimension Data, Pret and Starbucks
'Since purchasing Fleet Place House, Grosvenor has upgraded both the asset and the income profile, driving income growth and delivering very attractive returns to our investors,' said Scott Rowland, fund manager at Grosvenor.
Savills acted for Beijing SHOKAI and BNP Paribas Real Estate represented Grosvenor.
Beijing Capital Development Holding or Beijing SHOKAI was officially established on December 2005 after a merger between Beijing Municipal Development (founded in 1977) and Beijing Tianhong (founded in 1980). At end-June 2016, Beijing SHOKAI had total assets of €23 bn.
Previously known as Grosvenor Fund Management, Grosvenor Europe managed €4 bn of assets across the UK and Europe at end-2015.
