Far East Consortium Selling London Headquarters Building to AMTD Idea for $24M

Far East Consortium has agreed to sell a central London office block to AMTD Idea for £18 million ($24 million) as an expansion of a prior deal cut by the two Hong Kong players last year.

The agreement adds the disposal of FEC’s local headquarters at 40 Furnival Street in the City of London to a transaction first announced last March involving the sale of the Hornsey Town Hall project in London’s Crouch End area, according to a stock filing late last week. 

Under a term sheet signed Friday, the total consideration for the Furnival and Hornsey transactions amounts to £65.2 million. To facilitate the purchase of the properties, FEC’s finance arm will provide a £38.2 million term loan to AMTD Idea, the investment division of Calvin Choi’s AMTD Group, to fund part of the acquisition cost. 

“The directors are of the view that the transactions are consistent with the group’s strategy of divesting non-core assets, and that the entering into of the term sheet represents a successful transaction to the group and a positive development to the Hornsey transactions with a view to complete the transactions by 26 March 2026,” FEC said.

City Business Cluster

Also known as FEC House, 40 Furnival Street sits a short walk from Chancery Lane tube station on the Central line and near the legal and professional services cluster around Holborn, Fleet Street and the Royal Courts of Justice.

The six-storey building has served as the UK office for FEC since the developer acquired the 9,646 square foot (896 square metre) property from US fund manager Columbia Threadneedle in 2023 for £5.75 million, or £596 per square foot of office space. The agreement with AMTD Idea values the asset at £1,866 per square foot.

Last March, FEC agreed to sell Hornsey Town Hall — a hotel, arts and community centre project — to AMTD Idea for £47.2 million, after winning a tender to restore and take over the rights to the 1935-vintage complex and surrounding land in 2017 for £3.5 million. FEC reopened Hornsey Town Hall in October.

The loan provided by FEC will carry an annual interest rate of 5 percent, with repayments scheduled every six months over a five-year period. The financing will be secured against the Furnival office property and the Hornsey development, according to last week’s announcement.

The combined transactions are expected to produce net proceeds of £19 million after expenses, to be used as general working capital, FEC said.

Longtime Allies

The London deal is the latest in a series of trades between the two companies, after FEC in December agreed to sell a 50 percent interest in the Ritz-Carlton Perth to an affiliate of AMTD Idea for A$100 million (then $66.4 million).

NYSE-listed AMTD Idea counted FEC boss David Chiu as one of its early backers and hired third-generation FEC scion Andrew Chiu to serve as vice chairman in 2019 and 2020. AMTD Idea also operates a Dao by Dorsett AMTD hotel in Singapore through a joint venture with FEC.

AMTD Idea was co-founded in 2003 by tycoon Li Ka-shing, but Hong Kong’s richest man later distanced himself from the group amid meme-stock mania surrounding the company’s digital unit in 2022.

AMTD Digital saw its share price skyrocket more than 32,000 percent after its initial public offering in 2022, briefly making Calvin Choi Asia’s sixth-richest person, despite the firm having recorded just $25 million in annual revenue in 2021.