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The Finance Tower Complex in Brussels (JR AMC) |
South Korean real estate investment firm JR Asset Management (JR AMC) said Monday that it had obtained government approval for the initial public offering of its real estate investment trust, which invests in Belgium’s second-tallest skyscraper.
The REIT, called JR Global, is hoping to carry out the nation’s first listing of a cross-border REIT.
The Land Ministry authorized JR Global to embark on the IPO process and submit a prospectus. Under the Korean rules, a REIT listing does not require additional screening procedures by the stock market operator, the Korea Exchange. JR AMC seeks to list the REIT on the KRX’s Kospi bourse by the first half of this year. Meritz Securities and KB Securities are underwriting the IPO.
JR Global is designed to collect retail investors’ money on the stock market to buy securities of its private REIT JR Fund 26, which backed the acquisition for 1.2 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of the Finance Tower Complex in Brussels in January. It was the second-largest single real estate asset deal in mainland Europe.
With a gross floor area of 196,200 square meters, according to JR AMC, the 36-story commercial building houses Belgian government agencies.
JR Global expects an 8 percent dividend yield each year.
“We are looking for ways to offer retail investors more practical investment opportunities,” JR AMC Chief Executive Kim Kwan-young said in a statement. “(JR Global) will step up to become a global REIT with more strategic investments in prime overseas assets.”
JR AMC was founded in 2008 and manages $5.9 billion worth of assets, nearly half of which are office buildings.
By Son Ji-hyoung (
consnow@heraldcorp.com)
