A recent report in South Korean news medium Pulse News suggests that Korean group Hana Financial Investment is in exclusive negotiations with Blackstone to buy Germany’s largest office building, The Squaire at Frankfurt Airport. The price being discussed is put at just under €1.0bn (1.3 trillion Korean won).
The report names Seoul-based investment manager Hana, along with London-based asset manager AGC Equity Partner, as the preferred bidder for the 140,000 sqm office building across from and connected to Terminal 1 of the Frankfurt Airport complex. The deal is expected to sign imminently.
The landmark building, which started life in 2011 with already a chequered history as a result of horrendous cost over-runs for its then owner and developer IVG Immobilien, is nine storeys tall but a whopping 660m long. It houses tenants including KPMG, Lufthansa, IT group Atos, a couple of Hilton Hotels, and French tire maker Michelin.
Blackstone funds bought the then-IVG’s OfficeFirst commercial property interests in 2016 for an enterprise value of €3.3bn, consisting of 1.4 million sqm of German offices, including The Squaire’s 140,000 sqm.
Hana Financial Investment is at the forefront of a wave of investment by South Korean companies in Europe over the past year. Last November another Hana division, Hana Alternative Asset Management, bought the c in London’s Westminster for GBP 285m.
In April this year Hana joined with fellow Koreans, Vestas Investment Management, to buy the Charlemont Exchange in Dublin for €145m, and followed that up in August when it joined a consortium of Korean investors including asset manager Mastern Investment Management, Meritz Securities and NH Investment & Securities, as well as Munich-based Wealthcore Investment Management, to buy the Hilton Parkview Hotel in Vienna for €370 million.
According to the report in Pulse News, Hana Financial has been aggressively expanding into alternative investment assets after becoming a comprehensive finance and investment business entity that is now allowed to provide corporate lending services and act as a prime broker in large trading services, bumping up its capital last year to 3 trillion won.
Apart from the joint venture deals above, it has expanded its property portfolio by taking over a stake in Spanish solar power plant, acquiring BNP Paribas’ Poland headquarters and investing in an office building in Amsterdam in the first half of this year.
