Heron Annual Lunch 2011 Speech by Gerald Ronson

Gerald Ronson, Chief Executive of Heron International, a leading pan European property group, today addressed an audience of 350 opinion formers and business leaders at the Heron Annual Lunch 2011 in London.

The content of his speech is set out below:

Sports presenters often say “for those of you who don’t want to know the score please look away now”. If only it was that simple.

Whilst I am not Mr Happy about what is happening in the market as a whole, last year I predicted that it would be ‘The Year of the Heron’ and it has been a year of milestones and achievements. In January this year we secured planning consent for Heron Plaza, comprising a Four Seasons hotel, luxury apartments, retail and the creation of a substantial new public open space in the City of London adjacent to Heron Tower. We have also completed Heron Tower and have already let 20% of the space, meeting our expectations at this stage of the project, and we look forward to its official opening in a few months’ time.

The City of London’s attraction as a global financial capital remains strong as evidenced by the fact that UK property is still attracting significant interest from overseas investors. In fact, 40% of the buyers for apartments in our residential scheme, The Heron, have come from investors from places such as China, India, Russia and Malaysia. The attraction is not just the property and its position at the heart of the City of London but also weak Sterling and other benefits such as the attractive UK tax environment for non- domiciled investors. The remaining 60% has been sold to domestic buyers taking the total sold off plan to well over half of the development; this is well ahead of our expectations.

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