Hong Kong’s richest family scoops up UBS HQ for £1bn

British Land and GIC have sold UBS’s London headquarters at 5 Broadgate, EC2, for £1bn to the family trust of Li Ka-Shing, one of the world’s richest men. The Li Family Trust has bought the building through CK Asset Holdings, previously known as Cheung Kong. The Make-designed building completed in 2015 and comprises 700,000 sq ft of space across seven floors. The sale price represents a net initial yield of 3.95%. UBS are committed to the building until 2035. The deal brings a close to a bumpy sales process.  British Land and GIC made the surprise move to split the ownership of the estate when the building was put up for sale for £1.1bn last August. By December Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala had entered talks to buy the building before subsequent considering taking a 40% position with talks eventually ending earlier this month. The sale will also buoy the spirits of those running similar processes including the £1.3bn sale and leaseback of Goldman Sachs’s news headquarters at 40 Shoe Lane, EC4. Gerald Ma, member of the executive committee of CK Asset Holdings, said: “5 Broadgate is a great quality asset with a high-quality tenant, and we are delighted with this investment. “We are also very pleased to become a partner of British Land and GIC and share their long term vision for the entire Broadgate campus.” Tim Roberts, head of offices at British Land, said: “We delivered a modern, truly distinctive building for UBS, located at the heart of our largest central London campus, adjacent to the forthcoming Crossrail station. “We have now taken the opportunity to realise value and reallocate capital across a range of projects and uses to deliver the best value for our shareholders. “We remain committed to Broadgate and are making excellent progress on our vision to develop and enhance the campus to create a truly world-class, mixed-use central London destination. “We are delighted to have found such a high profile and respected investor who shares our long-term plans for the campus.” British Land is currently undertaking a revamp of its Broadgate campus with 1m sq ft of developments, predominantly retail and leisure, being delivered to rebalance the area away from its financial services focus. CBRE and UBS advised British Land. CK Asset Holdings was unrepresented. COMMENT: Positive news – and there could be more to come [caption id="attachment_924619" align="alignright" width="150"] Stephen Down[/caption] CK Asset Holdings’s acquisition of 5 Broadgate from British Land is positive news and hopefully there will be more as other assets go under offer, writes Stephen Down, head of central London and international investment at Savills. A circa 4% yield for that volume of asset is very good and certainly confirms the underlying mood I felt in my recent trips to Asia over the last two months. There is a still an appetite for London from Asian investors, but the right product at the right price must be provided. This acquisition was driven by the sale of a large project in Hong Kong and the need to find a home for a large amount of capital. Mubadala stepping away from buying 5 Broadgate provided them with an opportunity. We have been advising CK Asset Holdings for a while regarding their commercial aspirations and it has displayed a warming appetite, so I expect this will not be a one-off. Photo credit: High Level/REX/Shutterstock To send feedback, e-mail Louise.Dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette