Malaysian consortium pays £400 for London’s Battersea Power Station

The last significant piece of central London real estate, the Battersea Power Station site, has been sold by joint sales advisers

Knight Frank and

Ernst & Young Real Estate Corporate Finance.

Conjuring interest from large-scale investors the world over, the 39.1 acre site is currently under contract after a year-long global marketing campaign, of which targeted all major wealth centres.

[caption id="attachment_1579" align="aligncenter" width="499"] An artist impression of a previous scheme[/caption]

As a result, a £400 million deal has been struck by an alliance of Malaysian companies SP Setia, Sime Darby and the Employee’ Pension Fund of Malaysia.

Director of Ernst & Young Real Estate Corporate Finance Fergal O’Reilly says the deal is proof that London bears important investment and redevelopment opportunities.

“The sale of Battersea Power Station (BPS) is testament to the continuing draw of London as a centre for global investment,” Mr. O’Reilly said.

“SP Setia was the highest deliverable bid from the process and provides our clients and the creditors with a significant return."

Stephan Miles-Brown, Head of Residential Development at Knight Frank agrees, and explains the interest expressed by investors around the world.

“Throughout the six-month marketing process, which attracted investors from countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, South Africa, China, Indonesia and Brazil, we enjoyed excellent support and encouragement from all key stakeholders, in particular – the London Borough of Wandsworth, the Mayor’s office, Transport for London, and English Heritage,” Mr. Miles-Brown said.

“We have now found a skilled and extremelwy professional purchaser ho we feel can take on this site and produce the best result for London – the re-development of a prominent, listed building at a prime, waterfront location.

“The finished scheme will be the jewel in the crown of the Nine Elms Development”.

The current planning approval for the project stands at 3,500 homes and 1.7 million square feet of office, hotel and retail space.

The project will also spawn two new Underground train stations, which will be extensions of the Northern line.

Executive Director for Knight Frank Malaysia, Sarkunan Subramaniam, said the purchase of the site displays the significant capabilities of Malaysian developers.

“There were several bids for the site from Malaysia and SP Setia with the SimeDarby and EPF partnership came through as the winners.

“Malaysian Developers have certainly come of age and are venturing abroad with their skills driven by their local success and the fact that they have a steady following of High Net Worth Malaysian buyers who will buy their products in UK and Australia”.