With its third different owner in less than seven years, San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid, one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in the U.S., will remain in European hands.
News broke earlier this week that the owners of the Pyramid had contracted to sell the property to Cyprus-based Yoda PLC, a publicly traded investment firm founded by Greek billionaire Ioannis Papalekas. New York-based developer Michael Shvo had been the face of the Transamerica Pyramid’s revival from crumbling monument of a bygone era into one of the city’s most exclusive and sought-after office leases. Yet, the property was primarily owned by Germany’s largest public pension group, Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), and Munich-based private equity firm Deutsche Finance Group.
The Germans had partnered with Shvo in purchasing the building in 2020 for $650 million from Dutch insurance company Aegon, which had owned the property since its 1999 acquisition of the Transamerica Corporation. Working with a $400 million loan from Aegon, Shvo led a full-scale renovation of the property.
But what is, who is, the Transamerica Pyramid’s new owner?
The Pyramid appears to be Yoda PLC’s foray into U.S. real estate. Yet, Papalekas, Yoda’s founder and controlling stakeholder, is no stranger to commercial real estate. Papalekas was once known as the “office king of Romania.” Between 2001 and 2020, Papalekas amassed a 5.4 million-square-foot portfolio of office space in the country — much of which he acquired following the global financial crisis of 2008. Papalekas founded investment company Globalworth Real Estate Investments in 2013, and grew its portfolio of Romanian and Polish assets to $3.5 billion.
In 2019, Papalekas founded Papaduck Investments Limited, the investment firm that would become Yoda PLC. According to financial reports, Papaduck managed a mere $20.8 million in assets in 2020. It held interest in real estate, technology, shipping and healthcare.
In 2020, Papalekas sold his stake in Globalworth for $390 million to CPI Property Group, a company controlled by Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek.
Since its salad days in 2020, Yoda PLC has grown exponentially. As of its mid-year update in 2025, the company’s assets had ballooned to nearly $4 billion. Nearly half of its holdings are in Greece, with the other half divided between Switzerland and Greece. About 71 percent of its portfolio is in real estate and hospitality, and the company remains active in the shipping and energy sectors.
The firm’s fortunes surged in 2022 after it began listing its shares on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. One day after entering the public market, Yoda PLC’s board approved a merger with Papabull Investments Limited, another Papalekas company. According to financial reports, the Papabull merger brought with it major investment into luxury hospitality company Mediterranean Hospitality Venture (MHV). By the end of 2022, Yoda PLC was managing a $662.1 million portfolio.
By the end of 2023, Yoda had more than $2.2 billion in assets, and saw net profits grow by more than 852 percent. The company acquired a controlling stake in MHV and then sold it to Prodea Real Estate Investment Company. Yoda and the Greece-based Prodea have traded several assets since at least 2020. The most recent was Prodea’s $799 million sale of its real estate portfolio to Yoda subsidiary, VYP Group Ltd, in 2025. That included a 30 percent stake in the Piraeus Tower, a 277-foot office skyscraper that is the second tallest in Greece.
Yoda PLC has also acquired large stakes in Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp., a NASDAQ-listed shipping company that is one of the world’s largest carriers of liquified natural gas. In 2024, Yoda also bought a controlling stake in Swiss luxury real estate and hospitality brand Ultima Capital.
According to Forbes’ 2025 billionaires list, Papalekas was the 10th wealthiest Greek, with a net worth of $2.3 billion.
Yoda PLC’s board of directors includes CEO Alon Barr, CFO Stavros Ioannou, head of operations Marios Alexandrou, and head of hospitality and development Achilleas Dorotheou. The company has not returned calls for comment.
In a 2024 interview with CEO Insights Asia, Barr said the company’s “vision for the future is to elevate Yoda Group to a leading position in the real estate and shipping sectors, both in Europe and globally.”
Read more
San Francisco
Shvo and partners in contract to sell Transamerica Pyramid
Commercial
San Francisco
New lease at Shvo's Transamerica Pyramid sets SF rent price record
Commercial
New York
Shvo, Deutsche Finance close on Transamerica Pyramid for $650M