(Feb 1): Hongkong Land and Central Group are jointly acquiring the British embassy compound in downtown Bangkok for £420 million (S$782 million) in what is said to be a record property deal for Thailand.

According to The Financial Times, Hongkong Land, part of the Jardine Matheson group, and Central Group, the Thai family-owned real estate and retail conglomerate, have agreed to buy the plot that sits on Wireless Road in Bangkok’s central business district.

Britain bought the site in 1921 in what was then a quiet suburb of Bangkok but is now a rare patch of greenery surrounded by skyscrapers and Central World, an upscale shopping mall... (Click here to read the full story.)