London Square bought by giant Abu Dhabi property firm in £230m deal

London Square has been bought by the largest real estate group in Abu Dhabi in a deal worth £230m. 

The £277m-turnover residential and mixed-use developer, which operates primarily in the UK's capital, is the first acquisition for Aldar Properties outside the Middle East and North Africa region. 

Aldar recently expanded from its Abu Dhabi base into the Emirates of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah and has established a presence in Egypt, and the London Square purchase is intended to provide a foundation for expansion into broader international markets. 

The Middle Eastern firm has said it intends to leverage its expertise and balance sheet to support the UK developer's land acquisition strategy and enable it to develop larger and prime central London sites. London Square built 502 homes in 2022.

Aldar, whose circular headquarters building was built by Laing O'Rourke, said it was also expecting a positive impact on sales due to the potential for capitalising on cross-selling across both companies' international customer networks. Its development sales during the first nine months of this year were £4.15bn.  

Talal Al Dhiyebi, group chief executive of Aldar, said the acquisition was "a testament to [London Square's] management team, governance framework, and business model which has consistently delivered strong performance".  

"The transaction, which is synergistic in nature, gives us the ability to leverage our mutual strengths, shared values, and common approach to homebuilding to scale London Square while bringing the best of Aldar to bear in the UK's property market, as we continue to build our foothold outside of the region," he added. 

London Square's founder Adam Lawrence said the deal was "an outstanding outcome" for the business and described Aldar as "an exemplary company with an unrivalled reputation". 

Established in 2010, London Square is perhaps best known for its Nine Elms development in the south-east of the capital. 

It is also the owner of Square Roots, a for-profit registered provider of social housing, which posted an £808,000 loss in its first year in business.