A consortium involving South Korean investment vehicles has been selected as the preferred bidder for acquiring Rustonka office buildings located in Prague, Czech Republic, from Cypriot company Gramexo, according to investment banking sources on March. 13.

By April, some 210 billion won ($185.56 million) has to be forked over for the real estate, which is comprised of three buildings on over 37,000 square meters of land.

 

Courtesy of Rustonka

Excluding leverages, equity investment will amount to some 80 billion won, while Seoul-based investment bank Hana Financial Investment and fund manager Hana Alternative Asset Management will source 95 percent of it, sources told The Investor on condition of anonymity.

Some of the funds will be acquired through Hana Alternative’s principal investments. Its sister investment banking arm Hana Financial Investment will look for Korean investment vehicles to acquire equities through sell-down transactions, according to their tentative plan. The remaining 5 percent investment will come from Warsaw-based asset manager White Star Real Estate.

Officials of the Korean entities said details about the deal have yet to be fixed.

Hana Alternative and Hana Financial are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Korean banking group Hana Financial Group.

The news comes amid Korean cash influx into properties in Czech’s capital city. River Garden I building received investment from Korean institutional investor National Pension Service. Investment bank Shinhan Investment bought Florenc Office Center, which houses KPMG Czech’s headquarters.

The Rustonka office scheme has been managed by J&T Real Estate. Its two buildings were complete in 2017 and 2018, respectively, while the third building will finish construction in April. The buildings are located at riverside Karlin in Prague 8 district. Tenants include e-commerce giant Amazon.com’s Central Europe operations.

The properties are currently owned by Rustonka Development s.r.o. II, a wholly owned special purpose company of Gramexo. They were put up for sale in December.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)