KTB completes $160 mn office building purchase at Brussels Airport

KTB Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. has bought a new office building within the Brussels Airport complex for around 180 billion won ($160 million), for which it recently completed the resale of 80 billion won equity to domestic institutional investors.

The South Korean brokerage house borrowed 100 billion won from a local bank to fund the deal sourced by an unidentified European asset manager in March, it said in a statement on August 3.

“The office building we invested is a high-quality asset that generates long-term sustainable rental incomes because it has multiple blue-chip tenants including global companies, with their lease terms averaging about 15 years,” the company said in the statement.

But it did not identify the building and declined to give expected investment returns.

Meanwhile, in April, AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets announced the acquisition of a long leasehold right on the PassPort office building at Brussels Airport for €131 million ($151 million), on behalf of an unidentified client. It bought it from CODIC, a Belgian real estate developer.

AXA said in a statement that PassPort is a fully let, brand new multi-tenanted office building that was delivered in March 2018 and is located alongside both the main passenger terminal and runway at Brussels Airport.

When asked by the Korean Investors if the PassPort is the identical building that KTB Investment has recently bought, an KTB spokesman declined to comment, citing confidentiality agreements.

KTB expects the Brussels Airport complex to benefit from the continued expansion under the Belgium government-led development plan, and rising demand as a hub airport in Europe.

South Korean asset managers have been teaming up with French property investment firms to buy prime commercial buildings in the Benelux region in hunt for undervalued assets in Europe.

By JiHoon Lee

lizi@hankyung.com