Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India which manufactures the Covishield vaccine, has reportedly closed a deal to buy the most expensive home to be sold in London last year. According to media reports, the house in London bagged the title of being the most expensive house in 2023 and is worth Rs 1,446 crore.
The 42-year-old Indian billionaire will pay Rs 1,446 crore for the nearly century-old Aberconway House near Hyde Park.
Dominika Kulczyk, the late industrialist Jan Kulczyk's daughter and Poland's richest man, has decided to sell Aberconway House, a large 1920s mansion close to Hyde Park. According to persons familiar with the arrangement, Serum Life Sciences, a UK-based affiliate of the Poonawalla family's Serum Institute of India, will purchase the property.
The property will be purchased by Serum Life Sciences, a UK-based division of the Poonawalla family's Serum Institute of India, according to sources familiar with the transaction who was quoted in the newspaper.
Aberconway House is now the second most expensive residence ever sold in London, despite the sum that must be paid. 2-8a Rutland Gate, which sold for a record-breaking £210 million in January 2020, was the most expensive house sale in London.
The Poonawalla family has "no plans" to relocate permanently to the UK, according to a source close to Serum Life Sciences, but "the house will serve as a base for the company and family when they are in the UK."
Adar set out to carve out his path despite the benefit of being the son of the extraordinarily affluent Cyrus Poonawalla, whose total wealth is estimated by Forbes to be over $22.1 billion (Rs 1.8 lakh crore). He went to the prestigious St Edmund's School in Canterbury, The Bishop's School in Pune, and finally the University of Westminster. While in London, he pursued studies in biotechnology and management.
The 2011 hiring of Adar Poonawalla as CEO was a turning point for the Serum Institute of India. As part of Adar's global effort to tackle COVID-19, SII played a crucial role. By the end of 2021, the company intended to generate more than 3 billion immunization doses annually, with half of those doses going towards the pandemic effort.
During the global epidemic, Adar led SII in producing and distributing doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to 70 countries, exemplifying his unrelenting commitment to advancing global health justice.
According to the Financial Times, Hui Ka Yan, the founder and chair of Evergrande, was offered 2-8a Rutland Gate by the estate of Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the former crown prince of Saudi Arabia, in January 2020 for a record-breaking £210 million. In London, this was the priciest house sale ever.
Indian businessmen who own properties in London
Mukesh Ambani: Stoke Park is a 900-year-old hotel on the outskirts of London, owned by Mukesh Ambani. There are thirteen tennis courts, fourteen acres of private gardens, and a 27-hole golf course on this 49-bedroom estate. In 2020, the hotel was purchased by the billionaire for a sum of 57 million pounds or Rs 529 crore. John Penn, a soldier and scholar, constructed it in 1760.
Lakshmi Mittal: Bungalows owned by Lakshmi Mittal are situated in desirable areas of London. Bishop Avenue's Summer Palace is supposedly owned by him. He set a world record in 2004 when he paid £70 million for a 12-bedroom home in Kensington Palace Gardens in central London, complete with 20 parking spaces. LiveMint claims that Lakshmi Mittal listed his opulent London residence for sale in 2013.
