Ukraine’s richest man has set a new record for property in Britain, spending £136.6 million (€155 million) on two London flats, media reports said last Tuesday.

The flats cover 2,323 square metres across three floors of a luxury development overlooking Hyde Park, and have been bought by Rinat Akhmetov, 44, the reports said citing Land Registry documents.

The oligarch plans to knock them together to make a penthouse and is intending to spend a further £60 million on refurbishing the interior, according to the Evening Standard newspaper in London.

Akhmetov’s company System Capital Management, a conglomerate whose interests range from mining and metals to banking and the media, confirmed it had bought a property in the development in Knightsbridge, named One Hyde Park.