Singapore’s Wing Tai Holdings is in discussions to purchase 30 Gresham Street, EC2, from Samsung Life Insurance.
The Seoul-based subsidiary of the Samsung Group, advised by DWS, instructed Knight Frank and CBRE earlier this summer to look for offers of around £425m, reflecting a yield of 4.25% for the 400,000 sq ft building.
Cushman & Wakefield is working for the potential buyer of the property, which is located close to the Bank of England and overlooks the Guildhall and is let for a further 10 years to Commerzbank and Investec.
Built in the early noughties by Land Securities (now Landsec), 30 Gresham Street was bought by Samsung Life from GIC in 2013 for £310m, representing an initial yield of 5%.
Samsung Life is believed to have carried out some asset management initiatives within the building, but the overall passing rent is still expected to be £45 per sq ft. Prime rents are now hitting above £70 per sq ft.
Recent data from CBRE reported that Singapore accounted for around 36% of the £20bn of total outbound capital from Asia in the first half of 2018, with Asian property companies the most active investors, making up half of the total Asian outbound investment, compared with 27% in the first half of 2017.
Samsung Life have been contacted for comment. CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, DWS, Knight Frank and Wing Tai Holdings declined to comment.
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