London’s iconic Battersea Power Station could be put up for sale

Battersea Power Station has been completely and utterly transformed over the past decade. After fully retiring as a working power station in the 1980s, it sat empty and deteriorating for the next 30 years. In 2012 it was rescued by a consortium of Malaysian investors and in 2022 it finally opened as the behemoth retail and leisure destination it is today. 

Now, the owners of Battersea Power Station are apparently looking to put it on the market. If they do decide to go ahead and sell it, agents reckon it could go for an enormous £2 billion. Reports say that advisers from BNP Paribas have been brought in to explore interest from a ‘handful’ of interested buyers.

The landmark, which cost roughly £5 billion to bring back to life, is owned by Malaysian state-owned investor Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), Malaysia’s main pension fund. They were both part of the wider Malaysian consortium that bought the site in 2012 for around £400 million and then bought the commercial elements of the project – which  includes the shops, Apple’s offices and the Chimney Lift visitor attraction – from the consortium in 2019 for £1.6bn. That means that the sale wouldn’t involve the apartments in the power station. 

None of the involved parties have commented on the rumours yet and there’s no guarantee that they will choose to sell. If Battersea Power Station does go up for sale, it would be among the largest UK real estate deals since interest rates began rising at the end of 2021. Phwoar. 

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