JR AMC chairman Lee Bang-Joo has been spending some time on the continent
Korean investors continue to raise their profile in cross-border real estate investment as JR AMC has purchased an office building in France from Tishman Speyer for KRW 220 billion ($194 million) according to reports in the Korean press.
The Seoul-based REIT manager bought Le Cristalia, an eight-storey, large floorplate office building in the western suburbs of Paris on behalf of Korean giant Hana Financial, according to an account in the Korea Economic Daily, after the duo had teamed up to purchase office properties in London and Dublin in November of last year.
The Paris purchase is the latest in a series of European real estate investments by Korean investors as institutions from the north Asian nation diversify into global markets.
Asset Fully Leased to Pharma Giant
The 2003-vintage building is fully leased to pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and the investment is expected to provide a yield of 8.5 percent after euro/won hedging, according to the Economic Daily report. The transaction is said to have closed last week.
Tishman Speyer had purchased Le Cristalia in 2008
New York-based Tishman Speyer had acquired the property from Bristol-Meyers Squibb in January 2008, and had taken a euros 70 million ($79 million) loan in 2015 to refinance the property. With Brexit clouding the future of London as the preferred European headquarters location for global multinationals, Paris and other capitals on the Continent have been seeing increased demand for their office assets.
The Jean-Paul Viguier-designed office block was built by construction firm Bouygues, and has typical floorplates of 32,292 square feet, according to Tishman Speyer. The asset occupies a 111,137 square foot freehold site.
On a European Acquisition Tour
The Paris deal comes after JR AMC and Hana had worked together to purchase one of five office buildings under construction in Dublin’s docklands last November for €106.5 million. That same month JR signed an agreement, with Hana’s backing, to acquire the Sanctuary Buildings in London’s Westminster area from Blackstone for £285 million.
The two companies had also worked together with another partner in December 2017 to purchase the Vienna headquarters of Porr AG for €60 million.
Just last week, Hana Financial Group, together with its Hana Alternative Asset Management, was said to have been chosen as the preferred bidder for a $185 million Prague office complex which is leased in part to Amazon.
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