Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore confirms London deal

The Sean Mulryan-led Ballymore Group is to develop a €2.8 billion London residential development with joint venture partner Eco World.

Ballymore will develop three large-scale residential projects in London, which it previously owned, with Eco World, a specialist property investment company based in Malaysia.

The deal will see EW Investment take a 75 per cent stake in a newly established joint venture company called Eco World - Ballymore Holding Company Limited (Eco World-Ballymore) with Ballymore holding a 25 per cent stake. Eco World-Ballymore will then acquire the three developments from Ballymore for a total consideration of € 547 million. In addition to retaining its 25 per cent equity stake, Ballymore will manage the developments going forward. It’s understood that a substantial amount of the proceeds will be used to pay down debt with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

The assets to be developed are large-scale residential developments at waterside locations at Arrowhead Quay in Canary Wharf, Phase II of London City Island on the Leamouth Peninsula and Phase II of the hugely successful Embassy Gardens in Nine Elms.

It is expected that all three projects will be ready for sales launch in 2015, delivering about 2,800 new residential units and 250,000 sq. ft. of commercial, leisure and office space.

Sean Mulryan, chairman and group CEO of Ballymore, commented: "This is a significant deal for Ballymore, not only due to the substantial proceeds it will generate for this firm, but also in terms of providing a successful template for how projects such as these can be developed jointly in the future".

Ballymore also owns and manages a substantial portfolio of developments across London with approximately 3,000 units currently under construction and a further 8,000 units in its land bank in various stages of the planning process. It’s also developing about 650,000 sq. ft. of office space and about 300 homes adjacent to the forthcoming Central Bank of Ireland HQ on North Wall Quay in Central Dublin.