Transamerica Pyramid Sells to Cyprus Firm for About $692 Million

The 48-story spike above the corner of Montgomery and Columbus, the apex of a skyline silhouette San Franciscans have recognized since 1972, has a new owner: Yoda PLC, a Cyprus-listed investment firm controlled by Greek billionaire Ioannis Papalekas, which closed its $691.6 million purchase of the Transamerica Pyramid and two adjacent Financial District buildings on March 31. The deal is the city's largest office transaction since 2021.

For the sellers, the numbers are stark. Germany's largest public pension fund, Bayerische Versorgungskammer, along with Munich-based Deutsche Finance Group and New York developer Michael Shvo, paid $650 million for the complex in 2020 and spent an additional $250 million on a full-scale renovation led by starchitect Norman Foster, which added a public cafe, exhibition space, and a ground-floor pocket park. With a combined basis approaching $900 million, the $691.6 million sale price represents a capital loss of more than $200 million, a shortfall already drawing scrutiny from German lawmakers examining BVK's U.S. office exposure. A smaller Hesse-based pension fund that committed $67 million in preferred equity expects to lose its entire position.

Shvo, the operating face of the ownership group, exited with a $34 million settlement covering brokerage commissions and other closing costs, bringing Yoda's total outlay to $725 million.

The deal encompassed three properties on the same block. Yoda paid $600 million, or roughly $1,170 per square foot, for the Pyramid itself at 600 Montgomery St. The remaining $91 million covered a 20-story office building at 505 Sansome St. and a smaller historic building at 535 Washington St. A third parcel at 545 Sansome carries redevelopment entitlements whose fate will now be decided by Papalekas and his team.

The loss-at-sale headline obscures a more complicated building-level picture. During the renovation, Shvo's team secured record-setting leases exceeding $300 per square foot, and the Pyramid reopened in 2024 with more than 80 percent of its space leased, though some tenants have yet to take occupancy.

Papalekas owns more than 70 percent of Yoda PLC and built his reputation assembling an office portfolio in post-communist Romania before taking real estate firm Globalworth public on the London Stock Exchange in 2013. He sold that stake for more than $300 million in 2020, the same year he founded the company that became Yoda PLC when it listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange in 2022. The firm's market capitalization stands at roughly $3.3 billion; Yoda financed the Pyramid purchase with a $300 million loan from San Diego-based Axos Bank and $425 million in equity.

For San Francisco's broader office market, the sale is legible as both an opportunity and a warning. The Pyramid drew global capital at a moment when citywide vacancy remains elevated and conversion debates dominate regional planning conversations. But a $200 million loss on the city's most recognized tower, despite acclaimed renovation work and record rents, is a concrete measure of how far Financial District valuations have fallen from their pre-pandemic peak.

What matters most to the merchants and service workers who depend on Financial District foot traffic is what Yoda does next at 600 Montgomery. Whether the new offshore ownership invests in the building's public-facing ground plane, pursues aggressive tenant recruitment for the remaining vacant floors, and commits capital to the 545 Sansome redevelopment site will determine whether the Pyramid's new chapter serves the neighborhood's recovery or simply shifts its balance-sheet address across the Atlantic.