A weekly round up of the central London Property news

City of London

EG reports Fubon Life is in advanced talks to buy Cannon Place, EC4, from Hines for around £500m. The 418,000 sq ft building sits above Cannon Street Tube station.

EG states AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets has bought the 75,000 sq ft REX Building at 62 Queen Street, EC4, from Aberdeen Investment Management for £70m.

EG reports that Rathbone Brothers has placed under offer arounf 70,000 sq ft at Mitsubishi Estate Company’s 8 Finsbury Circus, EC2. The company is looking to move its main London office from Mayfair to the City and is currently based at 1 Curzon Street, W1.

EG reports that Blackstone is no longer seeking to find a buyer for the Devonshire Square Estate, EC2, which was being marketed for £500m. Several investors had made bids but Blackstone has opted to continue with its asset management of the 630,000 sq ft estate.

City of Westminster

The Malaysian Government, via its agency Majlis Amanah Rakya (MARA), is selling the two-storey Ashley Hotel in Paddington for £12.5m. Colliers International is acting for MARA.

Forty tenants in Chinatown are reported by Property Week to have signed up to an initiative to share rent information and ‘empower tenants in negotiations with tenants’.

EG reports that Aberdeen Asset Management has instructed Colliers International to sell the prime Mayfiar HQ of Kleinwort Benson for £121m – a 3.7% yield. The 51,861 sq ft 14 St George Street building is fully let to the bank until 2020 at an average passing rent of £86.88 per sq ft – well below market rents.

EG reports that Standard Life Investments has paid £57.5m for 6 Duke Street, SW1 – a 3% yield. The 35,000 sq ft building is let to tenant including Christie’s, DRC Capital and two are galleries. It last changed hands in 2012 when it was sold by Prestbury Investments for £39.3m – a 4.45% yield. CBRE advised Standard Life; Crossland Otter hunt acted for the vendor.

EG reports that Rowan Asset Management has secured its first office tenant at the refurbished Aldwych House. Wasserman Media Group is under offer to take 20,000 sq ft in the 168,000 sq ft building on the seventh and part of the sixth floors, where quoting rents are £65 per sq ft.

Hackney

EG reports that global advertising group Interpublic is under offer to lease the whole of UBS’s 99 Shoreditch, EC2, development. The group is currently based at 42-48 St. John’s Square, EC1.

Islington

 EG reports that CIT has bought Finsbury Tower, EC1, from Hermes Investment Management for £107m. The 153,000 sq ft tower is largely vacant.

EG states that Gaw Capital has bought 45-47 Clerkenwell Green, EC1, for £11m.

Tower Hamlets

EG reports that Blackstone has sold a 68,000 sq ft mixed-use parade of shops, offices and restaurants at Harbour Island, E14, to Mercer Real Estate for £26m.