NH-Amundi sells Yuanta's Seoul office to Capstone for $242 bn

Capstone will make the property a landmark in Seoul's central business district via reconstruction, market watchers say

Yuanta Securities Korea's headquarters in Seoul (Courtesy of NH-Amundi Asset Management)

A-Young Yoon 2

2022-05-03 18:12:31 youngmoney@hankyung.com

Real estate

South Korea’s NH-Amundi Asset Management Co. said on Monday that it completed selling Yuanta Securities Co.’s Korean headquarters to Capstone Asset Management Co., for 306 billion won ($241.5 billion) in April.

The selling price per square meter reached 10.94 million won and is understood to be the second-highest selling price per unit ever in Seoul's central business district (CBD). Last year, SK Group's head office SK Seorin Building was sold for about 11.81 million won per square meter, according to market insiders.

NH-Amundi acquired the Taiwan-based securities firm's Seoul office at 214.1 billion won from Hana Asset Management Co. in April 2017, with investment from its parent NongHyup Financial Group’s affiliates and some Korean pension funds.

Capstone and other Korean asset managers, including IGIS Asset Management Co., Samsung SRA Asset Management Co., Mastern Investment Management Co. and KB Asset Management Co. bid for the deal in February. Capstone was selected as a preferred bidder based on its capital sourcing and deal closing capabilities.

Constructed in 1987, the building has 16 floors above ground and five underground with a flooring area of 28,024 square meters. It was remodeled in 2011.

Capstone is said to be targeting the property as a future landmark in Seoul's CBD through reconstruction. As the building is more than 30 years old, its floor area ratio can be increased through large-scale repair.

Until 2012, the building had been owned by now-defunct Tongyang Securities Inc., a Korean financial firm that Yuanta Securities Korea acquired in 2014. In 2012, debt-laden Tongyang sold the property to Hana Asset Management for 140 billion won through sale-leaseback, and Yuanta Securities has been using the building through a master lease contract since then. The contract will terminate in September of this year.

“We have successfully sold the building via our real estate blind pool fund we created in 2016. NH-Amundi will continue to ramp up alternative investments focused on overseas real estate and infrastructure deals, as well as strengthen collaborations with NongHyup affiliates,” said Park Hak-joo, chief executive of NH-Amundi Asset Management.

Write to A-Young Yoon at youngmoney@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.