This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The former Stock Exchange Tower in London’s Square Mile has been sold for £385m to a Singaporean group that said it took advantage of Brexit uncertainty to strike the deal.

The Singapore-listed City Developments Ltd, which is chaired by the billionaire businessman Kwek Leng Beng, has bought the freehold building at 125 Old Broad Street from the US-based private equity group Blackstone. Blackstone acquired the building for £320m in 2014, with reports suggesting it might sell for as much as £430m.

“The short-term uncertainties surrounding Brexit have presented us with opportunities to acquire assets with deep value,” said Frank Khoo, the group chief investment officer at CDL.

The 27-storey building, close to the Bank of England, is CDL’s second deal in London this year after a £183m transaction for Aldgate House in September.

“We have confidence in the long-term fundamentals of London as a global financial hub with a robust office market,” Khoo said.

The former Stock Exchange Tower is home to tenants including the law firm King & Spalding, China International Capital Corporation and the property agents Cushman & Wakefield, who advised CDL on the deal.

Andrew Hawkins, an international partner at Cushman & Wakefield, said CDL had snapped up the building without any rival bidders, securing it at an “attractive price”.

Foreign investors have shown strong interest in the London commercial property market in the past 18 months.

In August, Goldman Sachs agreed the £1.2bn sale and leaseback of its new London headquarters with Korea’s National Pension Service.

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In May, China completed a reported £200m-plus deal to buy the Royal Mint Court site, overlooking the River Thames and opposite the Tower of London, and plans to convert it to its new UK embassy.

Last July, the controversial “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper sold for £1.3bn, a record price for a single building in the UK, to the property arm of Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee Health Products Group.

In March 2017, the “Cheesegrater”, the tallest building in the City of London, was sold for £1.15bn to CC Land, a Hong Kong-listed company controlled by the Chinese property tycoon Cheung Chung-kiu.