China Minsheng buys Societe Generale's London HQ

China Minsheng Investment Corp has bought the French bank Societe Generale's London headquarters office for 84.5 million pounds ($112.3 million).

Friday's acquisition is the highest Chinese investment in London's property sector after Brexit.

The deal was announced by SRE Group, a Hong Kong property group in which China Minsheng has a majority stake.

The purchase comes as weaker sterling, caused by uncertainty over Britain's decision to leave the European Union, has generated significantly higher Chinese interest in London property, according to real estate agents and analysts.

There has also been a growing trend in recent years of Chinese investors buying offices of large Western organizations, seeing these as stable income-generating investments.

For example, insurance firm Ping'an bought the Lloyd's of London building in 2013 and Hainan Airlines purchased the Reuters building last year.

China Minsheng Investment Corp is the country's largest private investment conglomerate. It is a joint venture by China Minsheng and Hana Bank of South Korea launched last year with a registered capital of 4.5 billion yuan ($680 million).

China Minsheng, known as the private version of China Investment Corp — the nation's sovereign investment fund — is invested globally, with 50 billion yuan in registered capital.

The group was launched by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce with 60 top Chinese companies from the private sector.

Societe Generale's London headquarters is at 41 Tower Hill, next to the Tower Gateway Docklands Light Railway station. Its has floor space of 170,000 square feet.

After the purchase, SRE Group will rent the property to Societe Generale until March 2020, with an annual rent of 5.96 million pounds. After Societe Generale moves out of the building, SRE Group will renovate it.

Societe Generale will rent a 280,000 sq ft building in Canary Wharf after moving.

Zhang Xueying, head of the China and Far East desk at the London-based law firm Sherrards Solicitors, said the investment by China Minsheng Investment Corp fits well with surging Chinese investment in London's property sector post-Brexit.

"A few months after Brexit, I see Chinese investors regaining confidence in UK economic growth. I expect Chinese investment in the UK property market to increase, as they effectively receive a 10 to 15 percent discount from the weaker pound."

Zhang said that immediately after Brexit some Chinese investors had put their activities on hold, but were now returning.

"An increasing number of individuals and companies are realizing now is the best time to buy. They strongly believe in continued growth of the UK property market, despite uncertainties remaining over UK-EU negotiations," Zhang said.

Shan Liew, founder of the London-based 88 Estate Agency, said the number of Chinese buyers of London property had also surged in recent months due to uncertainties over the Chinese stock market.

In addition to weaker sterling, other attractive factors include London property experiencing a growing rental yield, and the sustained openness of this market supported by investor-friendly policies, Liew said.

Frazer Fearnhead, CEO of The House Crowd, a UK property crowdfunding company, said another good reason for property investment by Chinese is that UK growth after Brexit could be supported by stronger links with emerging markets like China, and this would become an anchor for strong property prices.

In addition to London, Fearnhead sees Manchester as a strong location for Chinese property investment, supported by an array of available opportunities and the city's good air links with China.

Hainan Airlines launched a direct Manchester-Beijing service in June and Cathy Pacific launched a Manchester- Hong Kong flight in 2014.