London developer Quintain jumped into bed with a Hong Kong billionaire today, in a deal that should kick-start the building of up to 10,000 homes on the Greenwich Peninsula.
The firm’s shares leaped more than 26% as it unveiled the partnership with Henry Cheng Kar-shun, who chairs New World Development, a £4.6 billion conglomerate. The Cheng family — which made its initial fortune in jewellery — is worth an estimated £10.2 billion.
The deal will see Quintain gain up to £300 million in debt financing from Hong Kong to bring forward the Greenwich Peninsula regeneration over the next decade, saving the developer from having to put more of its own cash into the project.
Finance director Rebecca Worthington said: “We now have the capital to make this happen. “The reason they have put up the money is because they believe in London,” she added.
Cheng’s Knight Dragon vehicle now takes a 60% stake in the Greenwich scheme after paying Quintain £78.8 million, although the developer reckons that it could end up receiving as much as £150 million over the next six years before development profits.
Quintain’s previous partner at Greenwich, Australian developer Lend Lease, sold its stake in the scheme for £100 million, booking a £25 million profit. Lend Lease will pump the funds into other London regeneration schemes at Elephant & Castle and Stratford.
In the pipeline
- 9800 homes
- 3.5 million sq ft commercial district
- 350,000 sq ft of retail space
- 25,000 workers
