Taiwanese insurer buys City of London office for €187m

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers has sold a newly developed office building at 40 Gracechurch Street in the City of London to Taiwanese insurance company Shin Kong Life for £136 mln (€187 mln).

Cornerstone acquired the 11,400 m2 building on behalf of an institutional investor for £94 mln in August 2013, at which time it was 48% let.

Following a repositioning programme which was completed in early 2014, Cornerstone was able to fully let the asset.

'This transaction marks the conclusion of what has been a very successful investment and represents our first full turnaround of a large-scale London office asset,' said Darren Hutchinson, senior director of Cornerstone Europe. 'Having acquired the property just over two years ago we transformed 40 Gracechurch Street from a half-empty and underperforming asset into a fully let, prime institutional quality City of London office, backed by strong covenants providing high-quality income.'

GM Real Estate acted for Cornerstone while JLL advised Shin Kong Life.