BNK and KTB jointly buy UBS tower in New Jersey for $219 mn

South Korea’s BNK Asset Management Co. acquired UBS Financial Services tower in New Jersey for $219 million from US real estate developer Hartz Mountain Industries Inc. at the end of November, the asset manager told The Korea Economic Daily.

The asset manager attracted $131.4 million in senior debt from major Korean bank KB Bank’s New York branch and received a combined $87.6 million commitment from eight Korean investors through BNK Asset Management’s two private equity funds.

Korean securities firm KTB Securities Co. committed around $44 million to BNK Asset Management’s US Value General Real Estate Investment Trust III. Seven affiliates of BNK Financial Group including two regional banks -- Busan Bank Co. and BNK Kyongnam Bank Co. -- as well as BNK Securities Co. and BNK Capital Co. invested the remaining $44 million in a BNK Asset Management blind fund. 

The 10-story tower, with a 57,190-square-meter total floor area, will be master leased until 2023 by UBS, which leases more than 95% of the property.

Early this year, BNK Asset Management and KTB Securities jointly acquired a Bank of America building in Brooklyn, New York for $31.3 million. The two Korean firms invested $11 million while the asset manager attracted the remaining $20.3 million in debt financing from KB Kookmin Bank New York branch. BNK Asset Management, with $467 million in assets under management, will actively invest in overseas alternative assets such as offices, logistics centers and data centers next year, an official from the asset manager said. 

Write to A-Young Yoon at youngmoney@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.