Korean life insurer puts €247m London office scheme up for sale

Korean life insurer Hanwha Life is putting the long leasehold interest of 1 Wood Street in the City of London on the market with an indication price of £190 mln (€247 mln).

Fund manager Aerium, which is acting on behalf of Hanwha Life on the sale, has hired agent CBRE following a competitive pitch process, to market the building.

The 17,100 m2 asset which is fully let to international law firm Eversheds as its HQ for a further 10 years. Aerium originally acquired the asset for £105.5 mln in 2009 from Land Securities. Following a series of asset management initiatives, Aerium then sold the building to Hanwha Life in 2012 for £143.5 mln but continued in the role of asset manager.

'This is an exciting time to be launching such a prime reversionary asset as 1 Wood Street into the market, with rents in Central London already approaching record levels and the prognosis for ongoing rental growth exceptionally positive,' said Robin Carr, fund director at Aerium.

Some Asian investors are trying to repatriate capital on account of instability in the Asian financial markets and as a result of currency depreciation versus the euro.

Malaysian pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) is also looking for a sale of the iconic Richard Rogers-designed office tower at 88 Wood Street in Central London, in an attempt to repatriate capital amid the country’s ailing stock and currency markets.

The Southeast Asia government retirement fund is seeking offers of £270 mln for the asset, which generates some £13 mln in rents a year and has a weighted average lease term of five years.

KWAP bought the 247,000 sq ft (23,000 m2) office scheme in 2013 from South Korea’s NPS for £215 mln. The tower is home to the likes of Mitsubishi, Hewlett Packard, Collins Stewart and National Australia Bank.