South Korean firms, led by one of Asia’s largest asset managers, are investing in hotels and office buildings abroad as low interest rates locally are driving them to seek better returns overseas.
Their targets are hotels and buildings with marquee names in popular tourist destinations such as Hawaii and San Francisco, where some South Korean firms are paying record prices.
Mirae Asset Global Investments is acquiring the leasehold on the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for US$780 million, a person with knowledge of the pending transaction said.
The resort, with its landmark twin towers, would be the biggest single-property hotel transaction ever in Hawaii, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics. It would mark Mirae’s second large hotel acquisition on the island chain in a year.
The Seoul-based firm bought the Fairmont Orchid hotel on Hawaii’s Big Island for US$220 million in May last year. Several months later, Mirae acquired the Fairmont San Francisco hotel, a landmark in the city, for US$450 million.
Mirae declined to comment on the Waikiki hotel deal. But a Mirae official, who did not want to be named because of company policy, said low interest rates have made investment in overseas real estate more promising.