London’s landmark Battersea Power Station is to be sold to two Malaysian firms for £1.6bn in the UK’s largest ever property deal.
Malaysian sovereign wealth funds Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PMB) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) intend to purchase the Grade II listed building to transform into apartments, retail and leisure units, and office space - including Apple’s future UK headquarters, says the Daily Mail.
The sale - transferring ownership of the power station but not the 42-acre site around it - dwarfs the £1.28bn paid by Chinese investors for London’s so-called Walkie Talkie building in 2017, The Guardian reports.
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Built in the 1930s on the south bank of the River Thames, the disused electricity generating plant featured the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals, along with a pink floating pig, and is one of the best-known silhouettes on the city’s skyline.
The coal-fired power station stopped operating in 1983, but multiple attempts to redevelop the gigantic site have failed owing to the enormous costs and practical difficulties involved, says The New York Times.
In 2012, the building was bought for £400m by a Malaysian consortium led by property developer S P Setia, which planned to convert it into luxury homes and offices.
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