‘King of Toys’ Francis Choi to offload Sydney Exchange building

The sale of the office block housing the Australian Securities Exchange will be the next big test for the commercial market.

Hong Kong-based Early Light International, controlled by billionaire Francis Choi, is looking to offload 20 Bridge Street, in the heart of Sydney’s financial core for about $300m, pitching it as a repositioning play as the ASX prepares to shift to Martin Place.

Mr Choi is the founder and chairman of Early Light International, the world’s largest toymaker, and is known as the “King of Toys”. He also has investments in hotels and property in China and Hong Kong, as well as Australia.

Mr Choi weighed up whether or not to sell 20 Bridge Street as office values recalibrated, and after fielding off-market approaches, appointed Knight Frank to run a sales process. The firm and agency declined to comment.

The ASX last month inked a long-running deal to shift to a premium tower above the new metro station in Martin Place, taking it into the heart of Sydney’s financial district at 39 Martin Place. The tower is being developed by Macquarie, and was pre-sold to Investa and Manulife Investment Management for about $800m in 2021.

The Australian Securities Exchange is moving its head office to a premium tower in Sydney’s Martin Place.

The ASX will take floors in the building’s high-rise and retail frontage off Martin Place that will be used as an event space, including for bellringing ceremonies, and to display market trading data on large digital screens.

The coming move left Early Light International to find a new anchor tenant, but it will instead sell the building.

Early Light paid about $335m in 2017 to buy the building from Malaysian pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan.

The A-grade 20,329sq m commercial building comprises 13 upper levels of office accommodation, Exchange Square retail on the ground level, and an auditorium at basement level. The ASX occupies more than 45 per cent of the building and has a lease that runs until 2028.

The 20 Bridge Street building was the first Australian property purchased by the Hong Kong-based group that also specialises in property management, medical and health services, hotel service, watch and jewellery retail and international preschools.

Mr Choi’s group also owns one of North Sydney’s prime office buildings, Northpoint Tower, after buying stakes in 2019 in separate transactions from listed property group Cromwell and its then partner South Africa’s Redefine Properties.

His group also bought the 1 Castlereagh Street tower in Sydney for about $220m in 2019 from private equity giant Blackstone.

The Bridge Street complex, also referred to as the ASX Building, was completed mid-1999, and also has two levels of basement parking for 34 cars.

It was the site of the former Sun Alliance and Royal Insurance Building, Orient Overseas Building, and London Assurance House, which was demolished in 1997.

Other tenants include Standards Australia, BAE Systems and the Arab Bank Australia.