Singaporean investor swallows London brewery site for €224m

Singapore-listed City Developments Limited has acquired the former Stag Brewery site in south-west London for £158 mln (€224 mln).

London-based Dartmouth Capital Advisors represented City Developments' subsidiary, Reselton, in the freehold purchase of the 8.6-hectare site in the Mortlake district of the London Borough of Richmond on the south bank of the Thames River.

Property adviser Gerald Eve brought the development site to market last August on behalf of the vendor, Brazilian-based brewer AB InBev. The brewery has operated under various guises since the 15th century but is set to close as early as the end of 2015. The sale was triggered by the decision to move production of Budweiser from Mortlake to InBev's other UK breweries in south Wales and Lanchashire.

Market watchers had speculated during the summer that the Mortlake redevelopment opportunity could command an asking price in the region of £100 mln (€140 mln). The final investment volume is 60% higher than the estimate.

'City Developments, working with Dartmouth Capital, has focused attention on the suburban London market in its search for best value and sees the London Borough of Richmond as one of the most desirable locations for living and working in London,' said City Development's chairman Kwek Leng Beng.

The transaction comes a week after Pinenorth Properties, another City Developments subsidiary, acquired the Teddington Film Studios’ riverside site, which is also in the London Borough of Richmond, and located about seven kilometres from Mortlake.

The Teddington site provides for the development of 207 residential units. Demolition is underway with construction completion planned for 2018/19. The vendor was Haymarket Publishing, a media company founded by former UK government minister Michael Heseltine.

Founded in 1963, City Developments Limited is one of the largest property developers in Singapore. The company is active in 29 countries and had total assets of about SG$19.3 bn (€13 bn) at end-September 2015.