South Korea’s Hana Financial Group has been named the preferred bidder for 2+U office tower in downtown Seattle, priced at about 800 billion won ($680.4 million) with an expected annual yield of about 7 percent thanks to long-term tenants that are mainly global IT firms.

A consortium of Hana Financial Group affiliates including Hana Alternative Asset Management Co. recently signed a memorandum of understanding on purchasing 2+U - a 38-story, 61,780-square-meter (665,000-square-foot) office tower in downtown Seattle, according to investment bank industry sources on Wednesday. The potential buyer is scheduled to commence due diligence soon.

The acquisition is estimated to cost the Hana Financial Group consortium about 800 billion won. The consortium plans to finance about 300 billion won for the equity in the skyscraper from Korean institutional investors and the rest through loans from financial firms in the U.S.

The investment is expected to yield 7 percent profit annually as the mixed-use office tower has big IT firms as long-term tenants. It is reported that many of the tenants are under a leasing agreement for 10 to over 15 years, with terms of an around 3-percentage point increase in rent every year.

The 2+U office tower’s major occupants are Qualtrics, a wholly owned subsidiary of multinational software giant SAP, cloud storage provider Dropbox, and job search engine Indeed.

Previously in December 2019, Hana Financial Investment together with Lotte Hotel acquired a luxury hotel in downtown Seattle from U.S. private equity fund Stockbridge at $175 million.

Hana Financial Group shares finished Thursday at 28,450 won, unchanged from the previous session.

By Kang Doo-soon and Cho Jeehyun

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