Kim Yeon-hee
Reuters
The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) will buy two shopping outlet buildings in Seoul from South Korea’s E-Land Group for 220 billion won ($177 million), E-Land confirmed on Wednesday.
GIC submitted an application to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs last Friday to launch a real estate investment trust to buy the properties in an affluent district from E-Land Group, according to a ministry official who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
E-Land, which specialises in the retail, fashion and leisure businesses, will lease back the New Core Outlet and Kim’s Club Mart buildings and will have the right to buy them back five years later, the firm said.
GIC, Singapore’s largest wealth fund managing over $200 billion in assets, has been the most active foreign investor in South Korean property since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
The transaction is expected to help E-Land shore up its balance sheet after it scrapped Hong Kong IPO plans for a unit last year, and in the face of stiff competition from other shopping malls and food outlets. ($1=1242.7 Won)
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7471145&subject=general&action=article
GIC’s Joint Venture With Foreign Partners To Invest In Brazil Commerical Properties
Amit Kumar
Reuters
Canada’s CPP Investment Board said it entered into a joint venture with Cyrela Commercial Properties SA Empreendimentos e Participacoes (CCPR3.SA) and GIC Real Estate to invest up to $250 million in commercial properties in Brazil.
CPP Investment Board’s initial investment will be $150 million, with an option to increase it up to $250 million at the company’s discretion.
The venture will focus on the development, acquisition and management of institutional-quality commercial properties in Brazil.
GIC Real Estate is a unit of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSBNG51433720090810