An for the retirement fund assets amounting to 11 trillion won managed by Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities Co., which is the largest among held by securities firms. (Photo: Mirae Asset Daewoo)

Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities has become the top company in the securities industry in terms of retirement assets; Its retirement assets surpassed 11 trillion won as of July 31, the highest among securities firms in the country, led by the individual retirement asset account amounting to 3.261 trillion won and retirement assets at 7.978,5 trillion won, bringing total retirement assets to 11.046 trillion won.

Retirement assets increased 287.4 billion won since the end of last year, while the individual retirement assets rose 493 billion won during the first seven months of this year to rank the company among the securities firms in the country having the largest retirement assets - far above 9.9 trillion won the second largest retirement assets in the industry.

Officials of Mirae Asset Daewoo said the individual retirement asset account expanded fast, led by DC and IRP type individual retirement assets. Mirae Asset Financial Group is set to acquire a prime office building in the City of London from the Blackstone Group for 340 million pounds ($461 million), betting on the recovery in high-end London office buildings from the Brexit-induced slowdown.

The acquisition of 20 Old Bailey will mark the latest in a series of Mirae Asset’s property deals with the U.S.-based investment firm, which has been offloading London real estate since late last year.

For the transaction, Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. Ltd. will inject 150 million pounds into a private real estate fund to be launched by its affiliate Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. They will borrow the rest of the acquisition cost. The securities firm Mirae Asset Daewoo is likely to resell the equity interests in the nine-story building to other institutional investors. Blackstone bought the 22,000-square-meter property in 2013.

After an extensive renovation, it filled the office space with asset management company Barings, law firm Withers and Metro bank, a UK retail lender. They have a remaining lease term of over 10 years.

In the auction for 20 Old Bailey in March, 20-odd investors around the world, including Singaporean REITs, Taiwan’s insurance companies and Australian superannuation funds, reportedly placed bids.

Driven by large volumes of international capital and several landmark deals, London office building transactions reached 4.8 billion pounds in value in the third quarter of 2017, according to CBRE, a real estate consulting firm. Two-thirds of the figure came from Asian buyers.

Mirae Asset Daewoo has been ramping up principal investments in global real estate with an increased capital base. In March, a consortium of Mirae Asset Daewoo and NH Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. snapped up Cannon Bridge House in the City of London from Blackstone for $340 million.

Mirae Asset’s other property transactions with Blackstone include the $780 million purchase of Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa in Hawaii in 2016, and the sale of Capital Tower in Seoul for an estimated $440 million in 2016, as well as the $65 million sale of two logistics center in South Korea in the same year. Earlier this year, the South Korean investment group invested $95 million in a mezzanine debt on the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas owned by Blackstone.

Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. Ltd. and NH Investment & Securities Co. Ltd., which closed the $340 million joint acquisition of the London office building, are seeking to sell down 100 billion won ($94 million) worth of equity interests in the property to other South Korean institutional investors.

The two biggest securities companies in South Korea by equity capital spent 180 billion won ($170 million) – 90 billion won each – on the purchase of Cannon Bridge House in London from the Blackstone Group. Mirae Asset and NH Investment snapped it up in an auction and completed the payment on March 28, on expectations that the London office market has room for further growth in price.

“After the Brexit decision, new office building development all but ground to a halt in London. A lack of new supply in the City of London’s office rental market underpinned the property value,” according to an expert.