The Hornsey Town Hall renewal combines a hotel and apartments with an arts and community centre
Far East Consortium International has agreed to sell a partially completed London project to controversial Hong Kong finance firm AMTD IDEA Group for £47.2 million ($57.2 million), as the developer continues to shed UK properties.
FEC International is selling its Hornsey Town Hall development in London’s Crouch End area to AMTD IDEA, an investment division of innovative financier Calvin Choi’s AMTD Group. Choi’s Hong Kong investment firm, which also owns fashion title L’Officiel, achieved notoriety in 2022 when shares in its digital unit rose 32,000 percent within weeks of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a meme stock moment, briefly making Choi Hong Kong’s richest man.
With the Chiu family behind Far East Consortium having helped ring the bell for AMTD’s NYSE listing, Choi is taking over the combined hotel, arts and community centre project in the Borough of Haringey in northern London with the complex said to now be nearly completed after Far East Consortium won a tender in 2017 for a long lease on the historic property.
In a statement, Far East Consortium said the deal is “consistent with the group’s strategy of unlocking development profits from its hotel portfolio, as well as divesting non-core assets”. The disposal marks the third major sale of a property asset linked to Far East Consortium chairman David Chiu in the past year.
Friends of the Family
Far East Consortium is selling the hotel portion of the property for £22.66 million and expects to book a gain of £6.32 million on that element of the project, according to its statement. It will also dispose of all other remaining portions of the property for £24.54 million from which it expects to reap a gain of £8.44 million.
Calvin Choi, chairman of AMTD Group, briefly became Hong Kong’s richest man in a meme stock moment in 2022
Far East will use the sale proceeds for its general working capital, according to a filing with Hong Kong stock exchange.
In a press release announcing the partnership, AMTD IDEA said work is progressing well on the arts centre element of the project that has been dogged by delays after FEC achieved practical completion of an affordable housing portion of the complex in December.
The 68-room hotel will be named Dao by Dorsett AMTD Hornsey. AMTD IDEA, which counted David Chiu as one of its early backers and where third generation FEC scion Andrew Chiu served as vice chairman in 2019 and 2020, already operates a Dao by Dorsett AMTD hotel in Singapore through a joint venture with Far East Consortium.
“Our extensive experience and immersion in the world of art, fashion, and culture will enable us to bring world-class events, shows, and performances to the Town Hall and community, putting Hornsey on the global map as a prominent cultural destination and hub,” said Dr Feridun Hamdullahpur, chairman of AMTD.
Far East Consortium had won a tender to restore and take over the rights to the 1935-vintage town hall and surrounding land in 2017 for £3.5 million. The plan for the renewal project called for conversion of the Art Deco landmark into a boutique hotel and arts centre, while also rejuvenating a public square and building 146 new apartments. Far East Consortium also agreed to cover the cost of 11 affordable homes at the site, which would be owned and rented out by the borough council upon completion.
Earlier announcements cited a 2022 opening date for the project, which has since suffered repeated delays.
The project is now nearing completion with about 85 percent of the apartments sold, the affordable housing element already handed over to the local government and the 68-room hotel completed but yet not officially launched, according to AMTD’s statement.
The art centre has been delayed amid reports that a new operator will be named for the project.
Hong Kong Homeboys
The deal marks the latest partnership between the FEC’s Chiu family and AMTD Group chair Choi, who also serves as AMTD IDEA’s chief executive.
FEC chairman and CEO David Chiu
In September 2019, Far East Consortium and AMTD Group formed a JV to acquire a 268-room hotel and serviced residence in Singapore for S$289 million ($215 million) and later rebranded it as Dao by Dorsett AMTD Singapore.
Records show David Chiu as one of the early investors in AMTD IDEA, which Choi founded amid a restructuring of AMTD Group in 2019. David Chiu’s son Andrew joined AMTD IDEA as vice chair and worked with Choi to lead its IPO in New York in August 2019 and was also involved in a secondary listing for the company in Singapore in April 2020.
AMTD IDEA also touts its ties with big names including its links to Hong Kong’s richest man with Li Ka-Shing having co-founded the firm in 2003.
However, Li distanced himself from AMTD amid meme stock mania surrounding the company’s digital unit in 2022. Li’s Cheung Kong Group clarified at the time that it had reduced its ownership of AMTD Group to below four percent, was considering further divestment from the company, and was not involved in its operation.
AMTD Digital Inc saw its share price skyrocket more than 32,000 percent following its initial public offering in 2022, briefly making Choi Asia’s sixth-richest person, despite the firm having recorded just $25 million in annual revenue in 2021.
Controversies surrounding Choi also include a probe by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in November 2021 and a ban from re-entering the securities industry until September this year over what the regulator said were conflicts of interest during his time as a UBS dealmaker.
Offloading UK Assets
The London sale is the latest in a string of UK asset sales by Far East Consortium and the Chiu family.
In November last year, a fund backed by David Chiu and several other Hong Kong tycoons agreed to sell a prime office building in London’s St James’s district to San Diego-based commercial property trust Realty Income for £125 million.
In May, Far East Consortium agreed to sell a pair of sites in a Manchester project for £17.24 million.
With businesses spanning property development, hotels, car parks, and gaming, Far East Consortium recorded a loss attributable to shareholders of HK$769.9 million in the six months that ended September 30, 2024, compared with a profit of HK$232.2 million for the same period in 2023.
The company attributed the shortfall to a reduction in fair value of its investment properties and currency exchange losses.
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