Indiabulls Real Estate, the listed realty arm of Rs 20,000-crore Indiabulls Group, has bought a prime property in London for £155 million ($264 million) in the third significant property deal struck by an Indian firm in London in the last seven months.
The asset being acquired is located at 22, Hanover Square and is spread across an 87,444 sq ft in the up-market area of Mayfair in London.
The property has been bought from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, now part of Aberdeen Asset Management, which put the building up for sale in April through consultancy firm H2SO. H2SO is a part of Colliers International.
The Mumbai realtor plans to convert the commercial asset into a residential property.
"We are now seeking to diversify our investments and profit pool across various geographies and London is a very safe investment," said Sameer Gehlaut, chairman, Indiabulls Group, was quoted as saying.
“Over the years, London has demonstrated that it's a very mature real estate market that has remained stable through economic cycles like the 2008 crisis, since it attracts investments from across the globe-Europe, Asia and the US; and is therefore a very good hedge besides being a reasonable IRR investment," Gehlaut added.
H2SO Co-founder John Olney, said: "Free-hold assets of this quality and scale are rare in Mayfair. There was high investor interest in the building. Four parties were selected from the first round of bidding to participate in the final round. Indiabulls emerged the highest bidder in a closely-contested bidding process."
This marks third-big ticket investment in London by an Indian firm. Mumbai-based developer Lodha recently bought two properties in London-McDonald House in central London in November last year and a building on Carey Street in February 2014. The combined deal value of the two properties was around $680 million.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
