Chinese Estates offloads Mayfair block

Chinese Estates Holdings has sold 14 St George Street in Mayfair, W1, to Oval Real Estate for £125.4m. The 52,000 sq ft property was put up for sale by the business, controlled by the family of tycoon Joseph Lau, in June for around £135m. Chinese Estates bought the building in 2016 from Abrdn for around £122m. Under the terms of the deal, Oval will also repay £22.9m of bank loans and £96.4m of intra-group debt owed by the property’s holding company. Chinese Estates said the disposal was “in line with its strategy to make good use of and manage its resources to better develop its property portfolio”. “The disposal allows the group to re-allocate the proceeds for other investment opportunities when they arise and adjust, if needed, the overall strategy on its investment portfolio when the market conditions warrant,” it said. The sale comes a day after the firm published its results for the six months ended 30 June, which saw it swing from a HK$147m (£14.6m) profit in H1 2023 to a loss of HK$422m. Chinese Estates is also rumoured to be looking at exiting River Court at 120 Fleet Street, EC4, its project in the City, which it bought from Green Property in 2011 for £280m. Plans are in place to deliver a 21-storey block on the site comprising 540,000 sq ft of offices and 18,000 sq ft of retail.