Richard Li poised to take over £6 billion north London project, in his first foray into UK property

Pacific Century Premium Developments (PCPD), controlled by Richard Li Tzar-kai, the younger son of Hong Kong’s wealthiest tycoon, is in talks to take over as the master developer of the £6 billion (US$7.9 billion) Meridian Water mixed development project in north London after the previous developer of the project withdrew, sources said.

The project, the flagship urban renewal and regeneration programme by the Enfield city council in the northern borough of the British capital, covers 210 acres (85 hectares) between Edmonton, Tottenham and Walthamstow. It’s expected to feature 10,000 homes, with infrastructure and retail space, according to development plans.

The development value would surpass the record HK$40.2 billion (US$5.15 billion) price that Li’s father Li Ka-shing fetched this week for The Center office tower in Hong Kong, in what’s billed as the world’s most expensive sale of a single building.

Pacific Century had already been shortlisted as a developer for Meridian Water last year, but lost the final bid to Barratt Developments Plc, one of the largest residential property developers in the United Kingdom. Barratt, based in Coalville in north west Leicestershire, was the preferred bidder, while the Hong Kong developer - in partnership with Willmott Dixon, a residential contractor in Birmingham - was the reserve bidder.

Work on the project was supposed to begin in early 2018, with a 2019 deadline to deliver the first phase of the new homes, alongside a new Meridian Water railway station, according to the Enfield council’s plans.