Potts Point trophy home Bomera sold following interest from billionaire 'man of steel' Sanjeev Gupta

The historic Potts Point trophy home Bomera has sold for almost $35 million amid widespread rumours the buyer behind the transaction is billionaire “man of steel” Sanjeev Gupta.

The colonial residence is expected to become the Sydney home of Gupta and his English-born wife Nicola later this year, replacing the Bellevue Hill estate Barford they have leased for a reported $30,000 a week in recent years.

The sale is an impressive windfall for Leanne Catelan, daughter of the late property data entrepreneur Ray Catelan, who bought it in 2013 for $12.5 million, a fraction of her selling price.

The exact result of the 1856-built mansion remains undisclosed but a sales campaign was launched in March with Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay, after an off-market offer of $32 million was rejected last year.

In recent months multiple sources have said the Gupta family are planning to buy the residence for almost $35 million in a beneficial trust, but Mr Malouf dismissed the suggestion, and only confirmed the 1856-built property had sold.

At $35 million the sale result equates to a capital gain of $3.75 million every year that Catelan owned it.

Gupta, 48, has become a high-profile figurehead of Australia’s energy industry since he moved here from the United Kingdom in 2017.

He was dubbed the “man of steel” after his GFG Alliance bought troubled South Australian steelmaker Arrium for about $700 million from administrators Korda Mentha, which gave him ownership of South Australia’s Whyalla steelworks.

More recently he’s become known as an environmentalist steel maker after his GFG Alliance signed an agreement with Chinese energy company Shanghai Electric to build the 280 megawatt Cultana Solar Farm project to power the Whyalla steelworks.

Born in India, Gupta founded his Liberty House Group in 1992 while he was studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has become renowned in the UK for rejuvenating steel-making and engineering plants.

The couple’s penchant for historic homes extends to Wales where they bought a neoclassical villa in Chepstow for £4.5 million known as Wyelands House.

Bomera is set on the clifftop at Potts Point where it was built by architect John Frederick Hilly for colonial merchant William McQuade to overlook Woolloomooloo Bay.

It was acquired by the Defence department in 1941 as fleet headquarters for the Royal Australian Navy, and sold off in 2001 for $6.55 million to property developer Jorge and Monica Fernandez.

The five-bedroom residence with study, ballroom, swimming pool and separate three-bedroom quarters has been renovated since sold by the Fernandez six years ago, and again more recently during Catelan’s ownership.