It has emerged that Pole Capital Korea, a Singapore-based private equity fund (PEF) manager, is acquiring the former Sheraton Palace Hotel site in Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, which had been left idle for years.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 23rd, Pole Capital Korea recently signed a sales contract worth about 460 billion won for the former Sheraton Palace Hotel site with Shinhan Asset Trust. Back on Jun. 225th, Pole Capital Korea paid a conditional deposit of 22.5 billion won to the trust company, and plans to complete the balance payment and ownership transfer within the year.
Initially, the site was purchased by real estate developer The Land from Seojoo Industrial Development in 2020 for about 350 billion won, with plans to develop it into a high-end residential complex called "The Palace 73." However, financing fell through during the transition to the main PF, and an event of default (EOD) occurred.
Since then, The Land has continuously sought a buyer. Last year, it held sale talks with China's Xinda Group, but they fell through, and at the end of the year it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on related work with the Star Road consortium, but that collapsed.
During that time, the site was managed under the name of Shinhan Asset Trust according to a collateral trust structure. A lenders' group of about 17 financial institutions formed with Korea Investment & Securities as representative, including IGIS Asset Management, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance, Burim Savings Bank, and the National Credit Union Federation of Korea, selected Pole Capital Korea as the new acquirer in the first half of this year.
Pole Capital is an alternative investment manager headquartered in Singapore that became known by joining La Defense Partners as a co-general partner (co-GP) in the management control dispute at Hanmi Science last year. In Mar. last year, CEO Kim Gyeong-cheol established a local entity. Pole Capital is known to plan to develop the site into a mixed residential town.