Investors in Shaftesbury continue to jostle for control of the £3bn property group behind London’s Carnaby Street and Chinatown district as takeover speculation continues.
Filings revealed yesterday that Norges Bank Investment Management had strengthened its position in Shaftesbury, snapping up shares from Invesco. The move takes the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s stake in the company, already the second largest, from 13% to almost 21%.
Norges is hot on the heels of Samuel Tak Lee, the Hong Kong billionaire who controls about a quarter of Shaftesbury. Having attempted to buy the company in the 1990s before buying Langham Estate, which owns property to the north of Oxford Street, Mr Lee, 78, has heightened expectations that he will again swoop on Shaftesbury.
