Hong Kong people have come to London to buy a house again, this time by the relatives of the Zheng family, one of the four major families.
British investors (6 November 2021) learned that Du Huikai, son-in-law of Hong Kong New World Group founder Zheng Yutong, chairman of Harvest Creation and vice chairman of New World China, spent 130 million pounds (about HK$1.36 billion, 1.118 billion yuan) to personally buy 68 king william street, a city of London building.
68 King William Street Building
This is the first time that Du Huikai himself bought a building directly in London, which was once the location of the mall house of fraser, located at the exit of the monument subway station.
The 68 King William Street building has a total area of 98,000 square feet (about 9,100 square meters), which is about 120,000 yuan per square meter based on the purchase price.
It is worth noting that although this is the 77-year-old Du Huikai's first foray into London, the New World Group, of which he is the vice chairman, has already invested a lot in London.
The most famous of these is New World's £8.4 billion development of London's North Greenwich Peninsula.
According to the table of members of the Zheng family, Du Huikai's wife is Zheng Xiuxia, the sister of the current president of the New World, Zheng Jiachun.
Although he is a rich son-in-law, the Du Huikai family is also very powerful.
As early as 1957, Du Huikai's father founded Abundant Jewelry Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong, specializing in diamond import, export and processing business, and the business was quite prosperous.
Later, Tou further developed the abundance founded by his father, and gradually expanded the family business from the original single jewelry business to other industries, including real estate, hotels, security, restaurants, etc., in the 1970s, it was known as a rising star in the Hong Kong business community, and The company still employs more than 13,000 people.
In 1979, To joined the Hong Kong New World Group, where he was mainly responsible for New World's business in mainland China, especially In Shanghai.
Under the leadership of Du Huikai, New World has invested more than 10 billion yuan in Shanghai from real estate, hotels and large shopping malls, holding properties such as New World Tower, K11 Shopping Mall, Paris Spring Hotel, New World Garden, Ramada Plaza Changning, and Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai.
After a brief introduction to Du Huikai, let's talk about the building he just bought in London.
Speaking of the 68 king william street building, the friends who often move around the City of London will definitely have an impression.
Prior to 2018, more than half of the building was leased to the house of fraser, the only largest mall in the City, and the other half to serviced office provider regus (now renamed iwg).
When many office workers come out of the monument subway station, the first thing that comes into view is this building.
After the house of fraser mall declared bankruptcy in 2018, the building's former owner, Saudi investment firm al rahji invest, sold the building to U.S. real estate fund company Ares and London real estate firm Black Mountain Partners in 2019.
After the two companies took over the building, they quickly spent £20 million to renovate it and introduce the celebrity-sought after restaurant the wolseley.
As the first wolseley in the City of London, this high-end restaurant will also be an important façade for the building in the future.
In addition, the British 24-hour gym brand pure gym will also move into the building, which has signed a 25-year lease with the landlord.
At the same time, the new landlord also leased the building's office space on a 15-year lease to iwg's high-end serviced office brand Spaces.
After the renovation was completed, the two property companies sold the building to Hong Kong billionaire Du Huikai, who industry insiders said were profitable in the sale.
What else did Hong Kong investors invest during the pandemic?
In fact, in addition to Du Huikai's investment, many Hong Kong financiers have still purchased London properties through remote orders during the epidemic in the past two years.
On 12 February 2020, the FAR East Consortium, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, announced that it had spent £28.25 million (about 250 million yuan, HK$280 million) to buy an office building ensign house in London's canary wharf city.
On 26 July 2020, link reit, a real estate trust from Hong Kong, China, officially announced that it had bid £371.4 million (about 3.3 billion yuan) to buy the cabot, an office building located in the heart of Canary Wharf in London.
On November 6, 2020, Liu Luanhong, the younger brother of Hong Kong billionaire Liu Luanxiong, made a £235 million (about 2.05 billion yuan) purchase of the British Petroleum headquarters building at st james's square at 1 St James's Square in London through its control of Lifestyle Intenational.
Prior to this (May 2020), Lau also acquired a large number of shares in land securities, a large British commercial real estate company, representing approximately 1.25% of the company's issued shares, involving 50.126 million pounds (about HK$508 million, RMB430 million) through Loaf International.
In December 2020, k&k property holdings owned by the Roche family in Hong Kong sold consecutively, both spending £65 million to buy the Corinthian House, a West End building held by Topshop's parent company, and then spending £115 million (about 1.015 billion yuan) to acquire another office building in London's West End, the endeavour house.
On 1 March 2021, former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and former Chairman of OOCL Tung Kin-cheung became the majority shareholder, and a group of Hong Kong billionaires spent £255 million (about HK$2.8 billion, RMB2.3 billion) to buy the City of London office building athene place, also known as the Deloitte Building london.
On 14 October 2021, Chevalier International, founded by Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Zhou Yiqing, a Hong Kong entrepreneur, spent £21 million (HK$220 million, RMB184 million) to acquire one hammersmith broadway, an office building in West London.
The tenant of the building is the Department for Work and Pensions of the British government, which is equivalent to Hong Kong people as landlords of the British government.
British investors write at the end
It can be seen that the epidemic has not stopped Hong Kong people from investing in London, and in the past two years, the core assets of many core areas of London have been taken down by Hong Kong people.
Although the epidemic has caused travel inconvenience, Hong Kong buyers who have been working in London for many years have a wealth of experience and knowledge, and know what can and cannot be bought.
With such a mentality, just by remotely viewing the house, Hong Kong people can quickly take a shot as soon as a good project comes out and seize the opportunity in advance.