The buyer of the £475m serviced office business London Executive Offices can be revealed as the family office of a telecoms entrepreneur.
LEO has been bought by Celvam Management, which was established in 2016 and describes itself as “a single-family office, administering a diversified range of interests for an entrepreneurial family” that owns a mix of direct and co-investments.
Celvam is linked to the founders of Lebara, the telecoms company that specialises in pay-as-you-go mobile SIM cards targeted at international communities and migrant workers.
Lebara was led by co-founder and former chief executive Yoganathan Ratheesan who has an estimated wealth of £220m, according to last year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
Lebara has since been sold for around £275m by Ratheesan and his co-founders Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah.
LEO was sold by Queensgate after a two-year process with the firm, having appointed Lazard to seek £700m for the company in 2016. It subsequently appointed HSBC and Citi before again changing advisers, appointing Rothschild earlier this year.
Queensgate bought the company for £260m in 2013 from Morgan Stanley, when it was previously called Executive Offices Group.
Queensgate has said the sale has resulted in a gross return of around three times capital for the investors in its fund that owned LEO.
LEO’s 900,000 sq ft portfolio, which is made up of a mixture of freehold and leasehold locations, includes 33 St James’s Square, SW1, Central Court, 1 Cornhill, EC3, 78-79 Pall Mall, 53 Davies Street, W1, 2 Eaton Gate, SW1, 84 Brook Street, W1, Hudson House, 288 Bishopsgate, EC2, 16 Old Queen Street, SW1, and 17 Cavendish Square, W1.
HFF acted for the buyer.
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