A Chinese state-owned real estate investor has acquired an office building in the insurance district adjoining the east of the City of London for £65.5 mln (€90 mln).

A Chinese state-owned real estate investor has acquired an office building in the insurance district adjoining the east of the City of London for £65.5 mln (€90 mln).

The Friary Court building provides almost 7,000 m2 of leasable area and is occupied by the international law firm Holman Fenwick Willan on a lease ending in 2023.

The building was bought by Beijing Capital Development Holding Group, a real estate company controlled by the Chinese state.

The vendor was Hamburg-based company Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate, which acquired Friary Court for around £43 mln in 2009. The property was held by one of Warburg-HIH's closed-end public funds.

'Having acquired the property during a slow market cycle at the peak of the financial crisis, we now took advantage of the sellers’ market and sold the asset for a 50% above what we paid for it,' said Andreas Schultz, managing director of Warburg-HIH Invest. The appreciation of the British pound against the euro added to the overall return.

'Inversely, the buyer can count on long-term security of income from the property because of the remaining long lease term and the anticipated appreciation of the surrounding area due to several project developments,' Schultz added.

Travers Smith, with CBRE and Bilfinger GVA advised Warburg-HIH. Cushman and Wakefield and law firm Allen & Overy supported the buyer.