Singapore’s ARA Looking To Divest South Korean Office Bldg For US$860mil
SOUTH KOREA – Singapore-based ARA Asset Management is divesting a 6-year-old office building in South Korea’s Silicon Valley, reported The Korea Economic Daily on Friday (13 August, SGT).
Completed in 2015, the 13-storey Alpharium Tower within Pangyo Techno Valley close to South Korea’s capital of Seoul is being sold for approximately 1 trillion won (USD$860 million).
This is not only the highest ever price of a property in the area, but is also nearly double of the 527.9 billion won paid by ARA to acquire the office building from developer Alphadom City PFV in September 2016. Back then, the selling price translated to 14 million won per pyeong (3.3 sq m), but this rose to roughly 30 million won per pyeong at the latest selling price.
Earlier in 2021, another landmark commercial building in Pangyo Techno Valley, H Square, was offloaded for 26 million won per pyeong, the base unit of measurement for area in South Korea.
On Friday, investment banking sources revealed that ARA is currently in the midst of hiring a sale manager for Alpharium Tower, which consists of 2 interconnected office blocks. Besides having excellent accessibility to public transportation, the Grade A office complex is a landmark property in Seoul Metropolitan Area’s tech cluster.
As of 30 June 2021, 93 percent of the commercial property’s gross leasable area of around 1.24 million sq m was occupied. At the same time, the complex was valued at 791.8 billion won, ARA stated.
Alpharium Tower’s anchor tenant is NCSoft Corp, one of the leading game developers in the country that is leasing until 2031. Other occupants include Samsung SDS Co. and Samsung C&T Co. The commercial property’s retail spaces on the 1st underground level up to the 2nd floor are occupied by Kookmin Bank, Starbucks, and other shops.
Situated at Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province, Pangyo Techno Valley is considered as South Korea’s Silicon Valley as it houses many of the country’s tech giants.
