Manhattan Garments Group has completed the acquisition of 5 Fleet Place, London, EC4 from Poly Global. The value of the transaction is circa €227.3m (£191m) which reflects a net initial yield of around 4%. Manhattan acquired 100% of the shares in the Jersey Company that owns the asset.
A part of the Fleet Place Estate, 5 Fleet Place comprises a 130,500ft² building built by British Land in 2007 and has been the headquarters of law firm Charles Russell Speechlys ever since. Poly Global acquired the building from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in January 2016 and has since deployed £4 million towards the refurbishment of the lower part of the property, which has been instrumental in attracting occupiers, like fintech giant PayPal and accounting firm Wilson Wright.
James Tien of Manhattan Garments Group said: “5 Fleet Place is the type of high-quality investment we want to be making in London. The building has extremely strong credentials: its excellent base build, strong tenancy profile and longer-term reversionary potential make it a very attractive long-term investment for us.”
Christopher Room, Partner at Allsop, commented: “5 Fleet Place is a landmark building that provides exceptional office space in one of the world’s leading business hotspots. Given our long-standing expertise, alongside our partners at Millennium Group, in helping Asian investors make inroads in the capital, it has been a pleasure supporting Manhattan in acquiring this prime asset. 5 Fleet Place is one of many landmark transactions to complete during the first quarter of 2022, showing that despite travel corridor restrictions, appetite from Asian investors for real estate in central London is still incredibly strong, especially for high-quality income-producing assets.”
