Samuel Tak Lee and Shaftsbury

Samuel Tak Lee is a Hong Kong based billionaire property developer who’s most prominent acquisitions in the UK was of the Langham Estate for £75 million in 1994. He then went on to develop the Knightsbridge Apartments. According to Forbes he has a net worth of £42.8 billion and is 19th on the Forbes list of Hong Kong’s richest. During 2014, the billionaire built up a stake of 5% in Soho’s Shaftsbury Estate which he then sold in part producing a couple of million pounds profit. It was thought Samuel Tak Lee was going to make a bid to buy the Chinatown holdings from Shaftsbury last year, however, this never materialised. Samuel this week offered to buy 9.3% of Shaftsbury at a share price of 888p causing more rumours of a bid on part of the estate – the offer was ignored.

The Shaftsbury share price has remained extremely strong over the years and has risen consistently to 926p where it currently sits at market close today (23/07/1991). Ollie Salter a surveyor at Morgan Pryce believes, “There are mixed views on how Shaftsbury run the estate as they have a policy to never sell assets; this limits the capital it has to invest but in turn means there are many long term shareholders backing the portfolio and management ability which adds value.”

This news was brought to you by Morgan Pryce, a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.