Cathay Life Insurance has bought a prime London office asset from a developer owned by Ares Management and Delancey.
The Taiwanese institutional investor has paid 拢575m (鈧�802m) for the Walbrook Building in London鈥檚 City district.
The deal follow鈥檚 Cathay Life鈥檚 拢320m purchase of the Woolgate Exchange building from private equity firm TPG and Ivanho茅 Cambridge.
Taiwan鈥檚 largest insurance company spent some time assessing London鈥檚 real estate market for its first investment in overseas property, .
The Taiwanese government relaxed foreign investment rules in 2013, allowing domestic insurance companies to invest abroad for the first time.
Minerva, the real estate investment and developor jointly owned by Ares and Delancey, said the 1.6 acre site is let to tenants including Worldpay, Arthur J Gallagher, Xchanging, and Vanguard. Virgin Active and Waitrose are also tenants of the 440,000 sqft building which Minerva bought in 2011.
The sale is Minerva鈥檚 fourth since 2011.
Cathay Life鈥檚 Taiwanese peer last year bought a London office property for 拢139m from LondonMetric Property. , Fubon Life said it was targeting European real estate for its first overseas investment in the asset class.
The insurer, a unit of Taiwan鈥檚 second-largest financial holding company, has 鈥渁 close working relationship鈥� with some local advisers in Europe, according Howard Lin, CIO at Fubon Financial Holdings.
