Ioannis Papalekas, one of the world's richest people, enters the US real estate market by purchasing an emblematic property
Greek businessman Ioannis Papalekas (49), who exited Globalworth in 2020 in a deal valued at 330 million euros, has signed an agreement to acquire the entire office and retail real estate portfolio known as Transamerica Pyramid Center, operated by American developer Michael Shvo. The deal marks the investor's entry into the American real estate market.
Occupying an entire city block in San Francisco’s Financial District, the Transamerica Pyramid Center is a symbol of the city. Designed and built by renowned architect William Pereira and reconfigured by Foster + Partners under the direction of Norman Foster in a four-year renovation plan scheduled for completion in 2024, the Transamerica Pyramid is a landmark and one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Standing at nearly 850 feet (259 meters) tall and 48 stories high, including its illuminated pyramidal spire, it is the most recognizable landmark on the San Francisco skyline.
The transaction price was not disclosed, but the property was last sold in 2020 for $650 million and was renovated for another $400 million. The sellers of the property are Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany's largest public pension group, and Deutsche Finance, a German real estate company whose main shareholder is entrepreneur Ralph Winter. The Transamerica Pyramid is operated by American real estate developer Michael Shvo. The real estate portfolio now traded includes, in addition to the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, the office building with retail space, Two Transamerica, the boutique office building Three Transamerica and the private urban park Transamerica Redwood Park. In total, the portfolio has an area of 93,000 square meters and has additional development rights for an additional 74,300 square meters.
“The acquisition of Transamerica Pyramid Center represents a very important strategic moment for Yoda in 2026. We are investing in the United States, the largest and most sophisticated real estate market in the world, through this iconic, highly sought-after landmark in San Francisco. This transaction is not an isolated investment. It is the foundation of a broader and clearly defined growth strategy in the US. We are actively evaluating additional opportunities in key metropolitan markets and developing a structured pipeline of acquisitions in the US. The Transamerica Pyramid Center structure will serve as an anchor asset from which we intend to expand, accelerating the growth of our US portfolio in the coming years. Since acquiring the property in 2020, SHVO has coordinated a comprehensive transformation of the Transamerica Pyramid, involving world-renowned architect Norman Foster and Foster + Partners to carry out the largest renovation in the building’s 50-plus year history. The US commercial real estate (CRE) market in 2026 enters a new cycle recovery, characterized by the stabilization of capital markets and significant differentiation between segments. After a volatile 2025, the volume of investments is estimated to increase significantly, to approximately $562 billion, approaching pre-pandemic averages,” said Alon Bar, CEO of Yoda, an investment fund listed on the Cyprus stock exchange through which Ioannis Papalekas has made investments in real estate, pharmaceuticals, technology and shipping.
In early 2020, Papalekas exited the Globalworth business, which he founded in Romania in 2013, by selling all the shares he still owned in the company to Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek, in a series of transactions worth around 330 million euros. Also, from December 15, 2020, he also retired from the position of CEO of the Globalworth group, which rents almost all multinationals in Romania. Immediately after this major transaction, the businessman founded Yoda. Most recently, the businessman became the majority shareholder of the luxury real estate company Ultima Capital in Switzerland, which owns 48 residences, chalets, villas and land in 11 locations in Switzerland, France and Greece, valued at over 1.2 billion euros. Through Yoda, Papalekas now controls about 65% of Ultima Capital, after investments exceeding 600 million euros. Ioannis Papalekas owns 66% of Yoda, and after this transaction he entered the top of the richest people in the world, compiled by the American magazine Forbes. He now ranks 1,695th in the world with an estimated fortune of 2.4 billion dollars. Forbes says of Papalekas that, before founding Globalworth, he developed commercial real estate in Romania, achieving a rate of return of 175% for himself and his investors.
In 2024, Papalekas partnered with Greek billionaire Evangelos Marinakis, one of the most influential figures in the world of shipping. He bought from Marinakis shares in one of the world's leading gas carriers, listed on Nasdaq. After a total investment of around 460 million euros, Papalekas ended up owning 26% of Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp. (CCEC), making him the second largest shareholder in the company after Marinakis. The son of the shipowner and politician Miltiadis Marinakis of Crete, Evangelos Marinakis is known as a major investor in the shipping industry, being a municipal councilor of the port of Piraeus, but especially as an investor in football. Ioannis Papaleks began to invest the money obtained from the sale of Globalworth in the sector that made him famous. After buying several hotels in Greece and Cyprus, Papalekas also bought a 5.22% stake in Prodea Investments, the former real estate arm of the National Bank of Greece, after selling its stake in Mediterranean Hospitality Venture (MHV) to the company for €254 million. Papalekas also bought Sea Velvet Holding and Feeeway Success, which have a fleet of 18 bulk carriers and a tanker with an asset value of €49 million.
At the end of the first half of 2025, Yoda managed total assets worth over 3.3 billion euros and had a market capitalization of 2.58 billion euros. How Papalekas advanced At 37 years old, Ioannis Papalekas managed to convince dozens of investors to bet hundreds of millions of euros on Romanian real estate and help list his company Globalworth on the London Stock Exchange. At that time, the Greek businessman owned 64.9% of Globalworth, but gradually, with the development of the company and the attraction of renowned investors in the shareholding, his stake decreased to 10.7%. Ioannis Papaleks entered the big league of real estate investors in a very short time. In 2004, at the age of 27, Papalekas had already managed to attract the attention of a group of Israeli and Greek investors who mandated him to buy a half-developed mall in the Eroii Revoluției area, for 46 million euros, a huge sum at the time. His team completed the works and in 2006 he sold City Mall for 103 million euros. The result of this transaction secured him some long-term partners, with whom he built and renovated the Eliade Tower, PGV Tower, Nord Business Center, Strauss Business Center, Puccini and Dorobanti Business Center office buildings. The decision to list the company came as a necessity to put under one roof the main properties accumulated by Papalekas or his partners in Romania over the years. By the time of the listing, he had invested about 90 million euros. Today, Globalworth owns income-generating assets in Romania worth 1.2 billion euros and is the largest owner of office buildings in the country.
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