HK’s Chinachem Group Buys TikTok’s London HQ For £158mil
UNITED KINGDOM – Chinachem Group, a property developer based on Hong Kong, has embarked on its maiden acquisition in the country after it agreed to acquire TikTok’s London headquarters for £158 million (US$186.2 million), reported Mingtiandi on Monday evening (22 August, SGT).
Chinachem is purchasing Kaleidoscope, a six-storey office block in Farringdon within central London after TikTok signed a 15-year lease to occupy the entire commercial property in March 2021 from landlord Helical.
The tech giant is reportedly planning a further expansion in London. In March 2022, it revealed that it would lease another 100,000 sq ft of office space at Moor Place, which is just a short walk from its latest acquisition.
The Kaleidoscope office building’s £158 million price tag translates to around £1,782 psf based on the commercial property’ 88,680 sq ft of office space. But it represents a 12 percent discount from its asking price as Helical had put the asset on the market in January at £180 million. This could also mean that there’s a buying window in London’s office market for property investors with spendable capital.
“The transaction price, which has been reported as being under the seller’s asking, shows that there is currently flexibility in the London office market, making this a perhaps once in a cycle opportunity for certain investors to come in over the coming period, such as family offices amongst others,” said Ciarán Londra, a partner at law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Singapore who specialises in property deals.
Chinachem’s acquisition of the Kaleidoscope office building also “represents a big vote of confidence in the London office market,” added Londra.
The latest transaction reignites Asian acquisitions of London office properties after a surge in early-2022, which included Singapore’s Ho Bee Land acquiring the Scalpel office skyscraper in the City of London for £718 million in February. A few weeks earlier Hong Kong’s K&K Property had bought a commercial building at 15 Adam Street for £66.1 million.
