Citigroup Center |
By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
Mirae Asset MAPS Investments, the country's first manager of real estate funds, acquired a skyscraper located in the financial district of San Francisco, California.
It acquired the building, named ``Citigroup Center,'' in the Financial District near Union Square from a U.S. private equity fund.
This is the first acquisition made by a Korean real estate fund.
The center was originally developed by Citigroup, a U.S. financial services company, and was later acquired by a private equity fund. The company did not reveal the name of the fund.
``We can't reveal the fund until we fully close the acquisition deal,'' said Choi Chang-hoon, head of global acquisitions division at Mirae Asset MAPS, an affiliate of Mirae Asset Investments, the country's largest mutual fund manager.
The building is 43 stories high with a floor space of over 68,000 square meters, and is one of the five main buildings in San Francisco's financial district. It is worth about $370 million (370 billion won). But the official said its net value could change slightly as the two sides seal the deal. Mirae Asset signed a contract to acquire the skyscraper through its real estate fund from the U.S. private equity fund last Friday.
Mirae Asset MAPS fund was launched in 2007 with assets under management of 430 billion won, and has invested in properties located not only in Korea, but also in Hong Kong and China.
Its acquisition of Citigroup Center comes as the U.S. property market is undergoing corrections due to subprime mortgage defaults, and such buildings are too good to miss for Mirae Asset as they were on the market at 10 to 15 percent less than last year's property value, it noted.
The purchase is reminiscent of when foreign capital bought Korean buildings during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
``When the financial market in the U.S. stabilizes, the value of the building is likely to hike and boost our investment gains,'' said Choi in a press release.
With the acquisition, Mirae Asset MAPS plans to launch the ``Global Real Estate Fund'' investing in properties with growth potential around the world.
phk@koreatimes.co.kr
|
이혼녀들, 결혼경험 없는 남자 선호 이유
