Mirae Asset plans $500 mn bond issue; invests in HK office debt

Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. Ltd. plans to raise more than $500 million in a global bond issuance early next month to fund its global investments, after announcing a $243 million investment in a mezzanine debt on a landmark Hong Kong office building on April 18.

The brokerage arm of South Korea’s Mirae Asset Financial Group will kick off a non-deal roadshow for global institutional investors next week and public book building later this month, according to investment banking sources.

Citigroup Global Markets, HSBC, Korea Development Bank are joint bookrunners.

The planned debt issue will mark its second global fundraising via dollar-denominated bonds after it raised $300 million in an offshore bond sale last November. The dollar bond was the first such debt issued by a South Korean securities firm abroad.

At home, it had raised 1 trillion won ($880 million) in domestic bond issues during the first three months of the year to finance global investments.

In Hong Kong, it has recently invested $243 million in a mezzanine tranche on Goldin Financial Global Center, a grade A office building located at the Kowloon East waterfront.

The Hong Kong government is transforming Kowloon East from an industrial center to a technology hub through revitalization projects.

With the investment, Mirae Asset became the only South Korean institution to participate in the financing worth over 1 trillion won for the building which has a floor area of approximately 74,322 square meters.

Singapore’s GIC and Deutsche Bank also joined the financing. The purpose of the funding was unknown.

Completed in 2016, the 27-story building was Goldin Financial Holdings’ first property development and used as its headquarters.

The property is owned by Goldin Financial Holdings and its Chairman Pan Sutong.

Mirae Asset Daewoo’s recent overseas property investments include the joint acquisition of Tour Majunga in France, worth around 1 trillion won, early this year and the $300 million investment in a senior debt on The Center, a landmark skyscraper in Hong Kong in April 2018.

Last December it acquired a US distribution center leased to Amazon for $78 million, following the 150 billion won ($132 million) purchase of an equity interest in a Cologne building leased to the German federal government.