Irish property company buys Lloyds building

Shelbourne Development, a privately-owned Irish property firm, is set to become the new owner of the famous Lloyd's building in London, in a deal worth around £245m (€351m).

The company is understood to have agreed terms with Deka, the German investment fund that paid £186m (€267m) for the building in 1996.

Deka put the property up for sale in November.

Shelbourne, which is headed and majority-owned by Dubliner Garrett Kelleher, is expected to fund the deal with 80% bank debt, according to the Financial Times.

The transaction is one of the largest by an Irish company in the UK market.

It follows a trend of recent purchases by Irish developers, who have been looking to the UK and London in particular as their home market has cooled.

Yesterday, Irish building and DIY supplies company Grafton released a positive trading statement and said that 70% of their business was now in the UK market.