Gerald Ronson’s Heron Tower in the City could fall into Chinese hands for a whopping £750 million, it emerged today.
The industry veteran’s 46-storey skyscraper is likely to be sold to Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance, Estates Gazette claims.
The deal continues the march of Chinese insurers over the London property scene which began more than two years ago when the iconic “inside-out” Lloyd’s Building was snapped up by fellow insurer Ping An.
The Heron Tower has 440,000 sq ft of offices and two of London’s most upmarket restaurants and bars — Sushi Samba and Duck & Waffle — and the largest private aquarium in the world.
The high price is likely to represent a dramatic turnaround after lenders on the building (which was initially slow to fill up with tenants), nearly forced a sale less than two years ago. Ronson’s Heron International clashed with his fellow shareholders in the building — Oman’s State General Reserve Fund and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd — over the refinancing of loans on the building before eventually doing a deal with Starwood Capital.
One industry source said: “If the rumours are correct it’s a cracking price and the shareholders will do much better than they expected 18 months ago.”
