Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla Will Pay This Amount To Buy Most Expensive House In London

Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla has acquired a sprawling mansion in London worth around 138 million pounds (approximately Rs 1,444.4 crore), according to a report by The Financial Times.

According to the report, the Poonawalla family has agreed a deal for the 25,000 square-foot Mayfair mansion near Hyde Park named Aberconway House in what is expected to be the most expensive house sale of the year for the U.K. capital.

The five-storey property, dating back to the 1920s and Grade II listed, will be acquired by SII's U.K. subsidiary Serum Life Sciences, people familiar with the transaction told the U.K. newspaper.

Dominika Kulczyk, daughter of the late businessman Jan Kulczyk, who was Poland’s richest man will sell the property to Adar Poonawalla.

According to sources quoted by the newspaper, while the Poonawalla family did not intend to relocate to the U.K., the mansion would “serve as a base for the company and family when they are in the U.K.”.

It follows multi-million-pound U.K. investments by the family in vaccine research and manufacturing facilities near Oxford. Back in 2021, Natasha Poonawalla, the wife of Adar Poonawalla and Chair of Serum Life Sciences, had announced plans for a new Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building backed by 50 million pound funding commitment as part of a partnership with the University of Oxford.

It followed SII’s previous Oxford University collaboration which saw the rapid development and global roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at scale, manufactured and administered in India as Covishield.

Adar Poonawalla is the son of Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman and managing director of the Pune-based vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India.

Last month, Cyrus Poonawalla suffered a mild cardiac arrest and underwent an angioplasty procedure in a hospital in Pune.

Dr Purvez Grant, a cardiologist from Ruby Hall Clinic said, "Cyrus Poonawalla suffered mild cardiac arrest and is recovering fast."

Ali Daruwala, the advisor of the hospital, said in a statement, "Dr Cyrus Poonawalla suffered mild cardiac arrest on Nov. 16 and was admitted to the Ruby Hall Clinic early morning on Friday."

"Dr Poonawalla underwent angioplasty under the supervision of Dr Purvez Grant, Dr Makle, and Dr Abhijeet Khardekar. He is recovering fast and is in good health," he added.

(With PTI inputs)