Helical has exchanged contracts on the sale of the single asset company, Farringdon East (Jersey) Ltd, which owns the long leasehold interest on the Kaleidoscope office building, on Lindsey Street, EC1, to Chinachem Group for £158.5m. The price reflects a capital value of £1,789/sq ft and a marginal premium to book value.
Helical was granted a 150-year lease on the site from Transport for London in 2018 and has a head rent geared to 10% of contracted rents.
The 88,580 sq ft office building sits above Farringdon East Crossrail Station and is occupied in its entirety by TikTok, which took a 15-year lease in March 2021 at £7,633,053 per annum – an average rent in excess of £86/sq ft.
The PLP designed scheme, which has a 5,000 sq ft roof terrace, is accredited BREEAM Excellent and WiredScore Platinum.
Matthew Bonning-Snook, property director at Helical, said: “Kaleidoscope was the first over station development to complete on the Elizabeth Line and we were able to attract one of the world’s fastest growing tech businesses due to its striking design, highly accessible location, excellent amenities and strong environmental credentials. We will now seek to recycle the proceeds from the sale into delivering new highly sustainable ‘best-in-class’ central London office schemes, where occupier demand remains strong.”
Donald Choi, executive director and CEO of Chinachem Group, added: “We’re delighted to have acquired Kaleidoscope successfully as it is located in one of London’s best performing sub-markets with impressive rental growth. We intend to hold this property for long-term investment.
“Having now made our London entrance, we will incrementally increase our exposure in gateway cities of other major developed markets in order to move further forward our diversification objectives and build a long-term resilient income stream. However, Hong Kong still remains our home and the core market of our business operations.”
The sale is expected to complete in mid-September. Helical was advised by JLL and Chinachem was advised by Deloitte and Ingleby Trice.
