Florenc Office Center has a new Korean owner – EuropaProperty

CBRE announced the sale of Florenc Office Center, commonly known as the KPMG HQ building in Prague, to Shinhan Investment Corp a Korean based investment manager. CBRE represented the vendor, ZFP Investments, in the sale of the asset. The transaction constitutes the first direct real estate investment in the Czech Republic by a Korean investor.

“The sale of Florenc Office Center was the culmination of the complete scope of services which CBRE provided our client, including representing ZFP in the renegotiation of the KPMG lease, providing property management and accounting services as well as project management services during the comprehensive reconstruction which the building underwent. The seamless nature of the co-operation between the various CBRE business lines created the perfect environment for maximising value for our client and enabled the Investment Properties team to be able to perform their role efficiently, which culminated in a very successful transaction,” said Peter Wojtusiak, Associate Director, Investment Properties at CBRE, who led the transaction on behalf of the vendor remarked on the deal.

“We are proud to have successfully closed a significant international transaction where we were able to offer and sell an exclusive property to a major Korean financial group. I would like to thank and highlight the work of our consultants CBRE and Havel & Partners legal advisors who actively participated in the entire transaction with their high professionalism and human approach, as well as financial advisors from TPA. Big thanks also goes out to our investors, who have entrusted us with their assets,” added Peter Lukáč, Member of the board, ZFP Investments.

“There has been a wave of Korean capital looking at the Czech market over the last 12 months and we have been working closely with a number of these groups, with further significant transactions likely to close in the near future. Florenc Office Center is the first direct Korean real estate investment in the Prague, office market, with the only other acquisitions being made via fund structure managed by external managers. However, despite this new wave of interest from Asia, the Czech market is still very much dominated by European investors. During the period 2009 – Today, 70 percent of all investment transactions have been closed by European groups,” said Chris Sheils, Head of Investment Properties at CBRE.

Havel & Partners were the legal representatives of ZFP in the transaction.