Czech billionaire Vítek sells former London police building

Czech billionaire Radovan Vítek, owner of the CPI Property Group, is negotiating the sale of a building in central London that housed the British police for eighty years. The buyer could be France's Perrodo family, owners of one of Europe's largest independent oil-production companies, Perenco.

Bloomberg reported the news. According to the agency, the two sides have already agreed on terms, with the price expected to be around a hundred million euros — roughly CZK 2.8 billion.

The building is located on Savile Row in the upscale Mayfair district, close to Bond Street tube station. CPI Property Group bought the property from the British police five years ago for about fifty million pounds sterling (CZK 1.4 billion). The plan had been to redevelop it into offices, a project estimated to cost nearly 250 million euros — more than six billion crowns.

The sale of the London asset fits the broader strategy of the group controlled by the Czech Republic's sixth-richest man: CPI Property Group has long been shedding real estate, including land in Prague's Bubny district, to reduce its debt load. According to its half-year report, by the end of May this year the company had sold around 439 million euros (roughly CZK 10.6 billion) worth of assets — compared with almost 650 million euros (CZK 15.7 billion) sold over the same period a year earlier.