Goldman Sachs River Court City of London Office Bought By Chinese Estates

A building that’s part of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s London headquarters was purchased by Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd. for about 280 million pounds ($444 million), the broker that advised on the sale said.

The New York-based bank has about 10 years left on its lease at River Court, a building on Fleet Street in the U.K. capital’s main financial district, Gresham Down Capital Partners said in a statement today. Warren & Partners bought the office for 246.5 million pounds in 2001 on behalf of a group of Irish investors, Gresham Down said.

“These large, high-profile assets continue to attract strong interest from overseas investors who view London as their preferred investment location and a safe haven during this period of global economic uncertainty,” Stephen Down, managing partner of Gresham Down, said in the statement.

London’s commercial property market probably received the most investment for the second straight year in 2010 as prospects of rising rental income attracted cash from as far afield as Hong Kong, Qatar and Canada, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. Low interest rates and concern that the global economy may deteriorate have made other investments more risky.

Chinese Estates -- a Hong Kong-based property developer and investor controlled by its billionaire chairman, Joseph Lau -- will pay about 38 million pounds in cash and assume a 240.5 million-pound bank loan and 1.7 million pounds of other liabilities, Chinese Estates said in a separate statement.

River Court has annual rental income of 15.6 million pounds, according to Chinese Estates. Gresham estimated its net yield at about 5.25 percent. The building has 430,000 square feet (40,000 square meters) of space.

Fiona Laffan, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

-- With assistance from Gavin Finch in London. Editors: Anne Pollak, Daniel Taub

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Barwell in London on tbarwell@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.

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