Hong Kong's "king of retail" Lai Wing-To has brought to market a portfolio of prime London assets with a price well in excess of £260 million expected to be paid.
JLL has been appointed to sell the Trinity portfolio, which comprises three retail-led mixed-use assets in Mayfair and Soho – Standbrook House at 2-5 Old Bond Street, 291 Oxford Street and 2 Harewood Place, and 147-155 Wardour Street in Soho.
The jewel in the crown is Standbrook House, which veteran Hong Kong investor Lai Wing-To bought in 2019, when it housed the UK flagship stores of British fashion house Alexander McQueen and Italian shoe brand Tod’s on Old Bond Street.
Lai bought the 23,625-square-foot office and retail building from NFU Mutual for £152.5 million, a net initial yield of 2.7%. It is understood that the property was under offer for close to £170 million to the retail tenant luxury Swiss watch company Richard Mille last year, which replaced Alexander McQueen, before the deal fell through.
The investor bought the freehold interest in the 25,966-square-foot retail and office block at 291 Oxford Street and 2 Harewood Place in 2013 from Alan Sugar's Amsprop Investments for £80 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 3.25%. Lai bought the freehold interest in 147-155 Wardour Street offices from Thor Equities for £49.5 million, a net yield of 4.03%, in 2018.
It is understood that bids will be called next week with interest expected from private family offices and global investors for either the whole portfolio or individual assets.
In 2013, Lai shifted his focus from Hong Kong’s property sector to the retail property market in UK as a result of tightening mortgage loan conditions. One of the city's biggest individual real estate investors, Lai owns dozens of retail properties in Hong Kong.
The London assets are on sale following Lai's decision to sell a batch of commercial properties worth an estimated HK$600 million in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and Central districts, with the investor’s HK$460 million oceanfront mansion now also on the block, according to Asian real estate publication Mingtiandi.