Zedra Trust Company (UK) Limited is the organisation behind the purchase and ongoing resale of the Holme in Regents Park. You can read the FT article here.
The Regent’s Park mansion known as the Holme is being sold for approximately £190mn, according to people familiar with the matter, marking one of London’s most expensive house purchases ever.
The seller had paid £139mn to buy the 40-bedroom residence out of receivership in 2024. It was previously owned by Saudi royals. Contracts have been exchanged and the deal is likely to complete in the coming weeks, the people said.
The residence had not been publicly listed for sale. The Holme’s buyer in 2024 has never come to light, having been hidden behind a trust company provided by a corporate services provider- Zedra. The identity of the buyer in the current transaction is not publicly known either, according to the people familiar with the deal.
Transparency required
The anonymity comes despite efforts by the UK government to enhance the transparency of the high-end property market, where owners have long remained hidden behind trust structures and shell companies.
In the 2024 deal, the Holme was sold to a UK subsidiary of Zedra, a corporate service and wealth management firm that runs trusts on behalf of various clients, we know it as a firm of Professional Pension Trustees.
Why this mystery owner business doesn’t look so transparent.
The UK created a register of overseas entities after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to help the government crack down on mystery owners. The register requires individuals who own British property through offshore vehicles to register such entities and publicly reveal their ownership at Companies House.
The trust company that has directly owned the Holme since 2024 — Zedra Trust Company (UK) Limited — is registered in the UK. It used to be Barclays Trust till 2016.
It’s part of a Swiss organisation with its head office in Geneva.
None of the Directors of the UK company are pension trustees but I’m not sure that this business looks too good to those maintaining standards in our retirement schemes.
No one’s saying that what Zedra has been up to in this buying and selling of London property for a mystery buyer is illegal.
But isn’t it time that organisations that are transparent in one area, are transparent in every area. I have to wonder just why Zedra acted in this case , except for money. This is not what I expect from Zedra as ESG.
I’m concerned by this. Zedra is a UK “Pension” Trust company setting standards in ESG.
