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Cheesegrater owner sniffing around 50% stake in the Walkie Talkie

The Chinese tycoon who recently paid £1bn for the Cheesegrater building in the City of London is rumoured to be eyeing up a 50% share in 20 Fenchurch Street.

CC Land, the Hong Kong property investment firm headed up by Cheung Chung Kiu, is reported by the Standard to be one of the early bidders for a 50% stake in the property, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie, which is being sold by Canary Wharf Group.

However, the Chinese investor is facing stern competition from rival Asian investors, including Singapore’s Temasek as well as food giant Lee Kum Kee, as the weakened pound makes London real estate an even better value proposition.

According to the paper no UK bidders are believed to be in the mix for the bidding after Canary Wharf Group put up its 15% share along with the remaining 35% owned by a smattering of sovereign wealth funds and Morgan Stanley.

Land Securities owns the other 50% of the building, which generations over £40m in income per year.

If the deal goes through it would pose yet another massive property deal to go through this year in the capital, although the proposed £600m price placed on a 50% share would still be dwarfed by the £1.15bn CC Land paid for the Leadenhall Building earlier this year.

According to CBRE, the first quarter of this year saw 13 deals over the £100m mark in London’s office market, with nine of those deals coming from overseas buyers.

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