London: Adar Poonawalla, Chief executive of Serum Institute of India (SII), has agreed to rent a property in Mayfair in London for about USD 69,000 (Rs 50 lakh) a week, a record for the exclusive London neighborhood. As per the report, Poonawalla is leasing the home on one of the district’s best roads from Polish billionaire Dominika Kulczyk.
Measures about 25,000 square feet (2,322 square meters), the mansion is one of the largest residences in the neighborhood and the equivalent of about 24 average English homes. Notably, the property comes with an adjoining guest house and backs onto one of Mayfair’s “secret gardens.
At this time of coronavirus pandemic, the rent agreement will be a boost for the luxury homes market in central London, which has been hit by Brexit and pandemic. In the wake of the economic crisis, the rents have fallen by 9.2% in the past five years in Mayfair.
Poonawalla, who is now spearheading the production of millions of doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine, has long had links to the UK and studied at London’s University of Westminster. Earlier, he had failed in a bid to buy the Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair and turn part of it into a home.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index stated that Poonawalla is part of one of the world’s richest families, which has a $15 billion fortune, the bulk of it derived from the vaccine maker.
His Serum Institute, currently world’s largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold globally, had $804 million in revenue according to a Forbes article in November.