Labs Tower: Teddy Sagi’s investment in Cyprus

Labs Tower – a high-rise building under construction in Nicosia belonging to Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi who also holds a Cypriot passport – is expected to be completed by mid-2020.

It will accommodate the headquarters in Cyprus of the Sagi group which has entered the co-working share workspace sector with a new international brand called Labs at selected locations in major cities around the world.

The 20-floor Labs Tower will be 90 metres high with a total area of covered space exceeding 13,000 sq. metres. It will accommodate a café, restaurants, a fitness centre and meeting rooms for the Group’s business needs. The construction of the project alone will cost some €25 million,  and after the installation of equipment the project’s estimated cost is around €50 million.

Insiders said the building will be constructed according to up-to-date specifications and could easily compete with sophisticated ones located in vibrant big cities such as London. The Israeli investor has entrusted the construction of the project to Zemco while the design was the work of  Heracles Papachristou architectural office.

Sagi is an Israel-born businessman, partially based in London. He is ranked 6th on Forbes’ Richest Israeli People. On May 30, 2019 in the Forbes rankings he was 546th. Sagi is the founder of the gambling software company Playtech and owner of London’s Camden Market.

His personal wealth is estimated at US $3.6 billion with interests in real estate, gambling software, payments processing, and digital advertising.

Teddy Sagi founded gambling software developer Playtech in 1999 and built it into a $700 million sales firm that trades on London’s stock exchange. He sold a 12% slice of Playtech for almost $400 million in 2016; he sold the rest for $88 million in November 2018.

He has taken three companies public on London’s AIM: Market Tech, online payments processor SafeCharge and cybersecurity company Kape. Sagi took Market Tech (now Labtech London) private in July 2017; it owns a portfolio of London property including tourist hot spot Camden Market. His other investments include co-working spaces and technology startups.

In 2009, Sagi obtained Cypriot citizenship as part of the government’s citizenship by investment scheme.