South Korea’s Hana Financial Investment Co. becomes owner of an eco-friendly Edge-plaque office building worth 350 billion won ($294 million) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on a long-term lease to the country’s biggest pension fund ABP.

According to industry sources on Thursday, Hana Financial Investment will buy the Edge Amsterdam West building, which is located near the central business district in Amsterdam, jointly with other Korean institutional investors. It would be the first real estate investment in the Netherlands by a Korean financial institution.

Details about the contract including the date for signing, the expected yield on the investment and funding sources are not disclosed.

The building that has been leased out to the country’s largest pension fund ABP and asset manager APG for more than 13 years is expected to generate stable yields. The building is now under renovation for completion in 2021 by its developer and current owner OVG Real Estate.

The biggest Dutch real estate developer OVG Real Estate is renowned for The Edge building, acclaimed as the greenest building in the world, according to British rating agency BREEAM, which gave it the highest-ever sustainability score of 98.4 percent. The Edge, whose major tenant is consulting firm Deloitte, produces more electricity than it consumes with solar panels installed inside and outside the building and energy storage systems.

Edge Amsterdam West, which was built by a state architect in 1970, is a six-story building commanding a floor area of 60,000 square meters. The one-of-a-kind landmark building in the Netherlands will be the fifth redeveloped building of OVG’s the Edge project, which will have a distinct atrium covered by a massive glass dome and solar panels like others, once the renovation completes in 2021.

This is the latest investment in a series of overseas real estate assets by Hana Financial Investment, which has turned aggressive in seeking out lucrative real estate assets overseas since chief executive Lee Jin-kook took the helm in 2016. It invested total 2.5 trillion won in overseas assets last year including a 390-billion won worth office building in Frankfurt, Germany and a 360-billion won worth biomass plant in northeast England. Its investment banking division last year delivered a profit of 167.7 billion won, up 130 percent from a year earlier.

By Park Jae-young and Lee Ha-yeon

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