French billionaire family is buying a $135 million Mayfair building with African oil money

The Perrodo family has agreed terms to buy 27 Savile Row for about £100 million, roughly $135 million, moving another tranche of African oil money into London property.

BNF Capital, the family's London office, is buying alongside Morgan Real Estate from CPI Property Group, according to people familiar with the talks who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. Spokespeople for all three companies declined to comment. Green Street News reported the discussions first.

The building was a police station before it was offices, and the buyers intend to redevelop it.

Where the money came from is Gabon, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hubert Perrodo founded Perenco in 1975 and built it by buying mature fields the international majors had stopped wanting, running them cheaply and for longer than the sellers thought worthwhile. That approach made the company one of the largest independent producers in Africa and the dominant private operator in several countries where it works. Perrodo died in a climbing accident in 2006, and his widow Carrie and their three children, François, Bertrand and Nathalie, inherited the business.

The heirs have spent the past few years converting it into something else.

Bloomberg reported last year that the family was pushing capital into high-end real estate, diamonds and clothing as it moved away from hydrocarbons, running the money through three vehicles: BNF Capital in London, a private equity firm called Perwyn Advisors, and Kronos, a Luxembourg property developer Bertrand Perrodo co-founded a decade ago. British pubs and venture investments have gone into the mix as well.

BNF Capital and Morgan Real Estate have bought together before, on the family's own Mayfair headquarters at Hanover Square and on at least three other London assets.

The seller needs the money. CPI Property Group, controlled by the Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek, has been disposing of buildings since S&P Global Ratings cut its debt to junk in 2024, and took a further downgrade to BB earlier this year. Disposals raised €1.1 billion during 2025 and the group is still working to bring leverage down.

They are selling into a market with very little supply. Development has been muted for years, construction costs have risen, and prime West End office space is scarce enough that headline rents climbed 5% over the twelve months to the end of June, reaching £183.38 per square foot, according to Savills.