Designer loft company Yoo is on the verge of selling a fifth of the business to Israeli developer the Habas Group.
Habas will buy a 20% stake in Yoo, which is owned by John Hitchcox and designer Philippe Starck. The company will also invest £5m in Yoo through project investment and cash injections.
Yoo will also become a partner in Habas’s Tel Aviv apartment scheme. It will develop two 40-storey towers (right) comprising 297 flats on a site to the north of Tel Aviv.
The 1m sq ft (92,900m2) project has recently received planning permission and work on the $250m residential development is due to start on site in the summer.
Work is expected to take around two years.
Each apartment will have its own secure room in case of terrorist attack.
Under the agreement, Yoo will receive a share of the profits from the development. Habas will contribute the site and the development costs.
The move follows news last month that the company has put its Yoo NW8 scheme into administration after a contractual dispute.
