Mirae Asset close to buying Carrefour-leased new logistics center in Poland

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd., a leading South Korean asset manager, is close to acquiring a new logistics center in Poland for an estimated 50 billion won ($46 million), which French retailer Carrefour S.A. will lease for 10 years.

Mirae Asset has recently signed a preliminary agreement with a Polish real estate developer to buy the property for expected annual returns of around 10%.

It is now tapping South Korean institutional investors to raise a fund for the purchase by the time when the construction is finished, according to investment banking sources on Feb. 22.

“Logistics centers in Poland yield returns of around 10% a year, nearly double that in developed European countries’,” one of the sources told the Korean Investors.

Carrefour, one of top hypermarket chains in Poland along with Britain’s Tesco, will lease the storage and attached facilities under a 10-year agreement. It will use the warehouse to store goods supplied to its outlets in Lodz in central Poland and nearby areas.

The property is located in Rawa Mazowiecka in Lodz province. It will consist of a storage facility with a floor space of about 65,000 square meters and a 1,500-square-meter office.

The construction will begin in March to be finished by the end of this year.

Poland is becoming a key logistics center of Europe thanks to low labor and land costs and its proximity to Germany.

In 2016, two South Korean financial institutions -- NH Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. and Hana Financial Investment Co. Ltd. -- bought Amazon’s logistics facility in Poland for 100 billion won.

In the same year, Korea Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a logistics center of Amazon in Wroclaw, Poland for 93 billion won.

Amazon said last year that it planned to open its fifth logistics center in Poland as it is expanding operations in Europe.

By Daehun Kim

daepun@hankyung.com

Photo: Getty Images Bank