Fubon Life Insurance Company of Taiwan is on the verge of buying Cannon Place in the City of London for around £500m ($712m), according to CoStar News.
The 418,000 sq ft building is 80% let to tenants that include investment and law firms. It is opposite Walbrook Building, which Fubon's Taiwanese rival, Cathay, bought for £575m earlier this year.
If the deal completes, it will take Fubon's property holdings in central London from nil a year ago to more than £1.1bn, ahead of Cathay Life, which has invested £895m in the capital, said CoStar.
Fubon's London purchases over the past year include Bow Bells House at £197m, 1 Carter Lane at £139m and the Madame Tussauds building for £332.5m (IAR, 6 May 2015 Asian insurers step up European real estate investments; IAR, 26 May 2015, Sale of Tussauds to Taiwan insurer confirmed).
Insurers from China are also predicted to step up their overseas real estate purchases in the next four years, according to a report issued yesterday (IAR, 25 November, Chinese insurers to invest $73bn in real estate abroad by 2019).