"The Poonawalla family has no intention of permanently relocating to the UK, but the mansion will serve as a base for both the company and the family during their UK visits,” stated a "source close to Serum Life Sciences,” a British subsidiary of the Serum Institute of India (SII), who spoke to the Financial Times (FT), as per a report in indiatoday.com on December 13, 2023.
Believed to be acquired by Serum Life Sciences, the deal will be the second most expensive home ever sold in London, according to news reports. The most expensive deal was transacted in January 2020 with a property in Rutland Gate being sold for GBP 210 mn, noted Hindustan Times (HT) of December 13.
Top: Adar Poonawalla and his new London base, Aberconway House (above) Photo: Wikipedia
Chief executive officer of SII Adar Poonawalla purchased the 25,000 sq ft mansion in London’s upmarket Mayfair for "a minimum of GBP 138 mn or Rs 1,444 crore” making it the highest priced home sale of the year, according to news reports.
Quoting the FT report, indiatoday.com stated that "the mansion, Aberconway House, is a significant 1920s property located near Hyde Park.” The house is a red-brick structure named for industrialist Henry Duncan McLaren, Baron Aberconway, noted the HT. The sale was agreed by Dominika Kulczyk, daughter of the late businessman Jan Kulczyk who was Poland’s richest man, reported HT.
Meanwhile, Poonawalla has been unable to move into the USD 120 million (Rs 994.55 crore) Wankaner House he bought in 2015 in Bombay. The sale has been put on hold by the union government because of a dispute over the ownership of the land (see "Whose land is this land?” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, October 7, 2019). The two-acre facility housed the US consulate for nearly 50 years.
Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of SII and Adar’s father, played a major role in the war against Covid with the manufacture of the vaccine Covishield developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.