The Fullest List Ever Published Of The Owners At The World’s Most Expensive Apartment Block
The owners of the apartments at One Hyde Park, the London apartment block that has set records for the highest price paid for apartments globally, is a subject of fascination and shrouded in mystery.
Many of the 86 apartments are owned by corporations registered in jurisdictions with limited transparency over corporate control, meaning it is impossible to work out who actually owns them.
But about a quarter of them are owned by individuals, and a bit of digging by Bisnow has unearthed a way of piecing together the most comprehensive list yet produced of who owns some of the world’s most expensive residential real estate.
Like any multi-tenanted apartment block, One Hyde Park has a management company that manages the building on behalf of the residents, undertaking such prosaic functions as collecting service charge and using it to pay for repairs of common areas.
Accounts for this company, One Hyde Park Limited, state that its shareholders are the owners of the block’s apartments. And a list of these shareholders, as of November 2020, is publicly available at Companies House.
Among the offshore corporations in this list of shareholders are an eclectic mix of 23 individuals. Many are, unsurprisingly, billionaires, in fields ranging from commodities to telecoms to secondhand car sales. Some are the children of such super-rich folks. There are financiers, singers and some people who, despite owning flats bought for millions of pounds, have no internet footprint at all.
Here’s the rundown, in alphabetical order, of those who might bump into each other in the golf simulator. Unless otherwise stated, the people named didn't respond to a request for comment.
Suha Hassan Saleh Abdulaal: No online information available.
Anar Aitzhanova: A singer famous in Kazakstan.
Kairat Boranbayev: A Kazakh businessman who has held senior positions at gas companies in the country including KazTransGas and Intergas Central Asia, and was also CEO of investment firm Almaly. From 1993 to 2000, he worked in various management positions within government and businesses in Kazakhstan. He is chairman of Kazakh football team Kairat Almaty and is part of the UEFA Foundation, part of the social responsibility arm of European football’s governing body.
Nick Candy: The head of the interior design firm that fitted out One Hyde Park scheme owns a five-bedroom penthouse there, his spokesperson confirmed.
Rory Carvill: Founder and chairman of insurance broker RK Carvill.
Ekaterina Fedun: Daughter of Leonid Fedun, vice president of Russian oil firm Lukoil and one of the co-owners of IFD Kapital. Forbes estimates his net worth at $8.6B.
Mohammad Hajihashemi and Sheila Ghasemi: No information available.
Bassim Haidar: A Lebanese national born in Nigeria, Haidar has founded several telecoms companies operating in Africa and other emerging markets including Channel IT and Channel VAS.
Polys Haji-Ioannou and Rozmari Haji-Ioannou: A Cypriot billionaire, due mainly to his shareholding in EasyJet, the airline founded by his brother Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The two are the sons of Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who once owned the largest shipping fleet in the world. Polys Haji-Ioannou owns Polyar Tankers, a shipping company, with about 20 tanker ships, and Forbes pegs his worth at about $1.1B.
Kin Hung Kei: No information available.
Kamilla Kim: Daughter of Vladimir Kim, a major shareholder in KAZ Minerals PLC and former chairman of Kazakhmys, the commodities firm. Forbes has his net worth as $4.4B.
Kwok Ying Shing and Chan Nog: Kwok Ying Shing is chairman and executive director of Hong Kong real estate and health care company Kaisa Group.
Leonard Licht and Judith Licht: Licht is a stock market investor and venture capitalist who made his name as a shrewd stock picker in the 1990s at firms including Mercury Asset Management and Jupiter Asset Management. Together with his wife, Judith, he is also patron of a charitable foundation. He could not be reached for comment.
Noel McKee and Catherine McKee: Alongside his brother Darren, Noel McKee bought the used car sale company Carcraft in the 1990s, sold it in 2014 and started online used car marketplace We Buy Any Car.
Alima Nazarbayeva: No information available.
Syed Mokhtar Shah Bin Syed Nor: The Albukhary group of companies led by Nor is is a diversified business group consisting of subsidiaries in sectors ranging from plantations to telecoms. Forbes has his net worth at $1.4B.
Jette Torp Parker: The wife of Alan Moore Parker, who trained as an accountant and worked for the Hong Kong-based duty free retail company DFS Group. He became DFS' third-largest shareholder, and when it was taken over by LVMH in 1997, Parker received about $840M for his 20% stake. He also subsequently made money investing in hedge funds and technology, and his net worth has been estimated at more than $2B.
Abdullah Abdullatif Al Fozan and Nada Abdulaziz al Saghyir: Al Fozan is managing director of Al Fozan Group, a Saudi Arabian real estate and industrial conglomerate whose net worth has been estimated at more than $2B.
Suzan Sabancı Dinçer, Ceyda Sabanci Dinçer and Haluk Akay Dinçer: Suzan Sabancı Dinçer is chairperson of Akbank, as well as board member of Sabancı Holding. The Sabanci family is one of the richest in Turkey, with business interests dating back to the 1930s and wealth estimated at more than $20B by Forbes.
Viktor Kharitonin and Irina Viktorovna Kharitonina: Russian businessman Viktor Kharitonin created Pharmstandard together with Roman Abramovich and others by combining five factories bought from ICN Pharmaceuticals in 2003. He and his partner, Egor Kulkov, bought out their partners in 2008, a year after Pharmstandard went public in London, and the pair took Pharmstandard private in 2016. Forbes has his net worth at $2.4B.
Geoffrey Warren: Geoffrey Warren founded Cargiant, which claims to be the world’s largest independent car dealership and has a site in north west London the size of 11 Wembley stadiums and 2,000 cars on display at any one time. His net worth is estimated at £1.3B.
Galina Weber: No definitive information available but identified in a Vanity Fair article in 2013 as Swiss and Monaco resident and shareholder of Russian gas firm Itera.
You Zhenhua: No information available.
Wong Wen Young: No information available.
Also in the mix:
Rinat Akhmetov, the Ukrainian billionaire, confirmed he was the 2014 buyer of a £140M apartment at One Hyde Park, which at £10K per SF is the most expensive apartment sale in the world.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, former prime minister of Qatar and one of the project’s backers, has been widely identified as owning one of the largest apartments at the scheme.
