SEOUL: South Korea’s Simone Investment Management Co. in consortium with nation’s institutional investors purchased De Rotterdam, an architectural landmark in Netherlands’ southern port city Rotterdam, at about 450 billion won ($379 million) from Netherlands-based Rabo Vastgoed Groep (Rabo Real Estate Group), according to investment bank industry sources on Friday.
The 160,000-square-meter multifunctional building De Rotterdam stands 150-meter high near Wilhelmina Pier along Maas river which runs through Rotterdam where Europe’s largest port is located. The building was designed by world’s famous architect Rem Koolhaas to portray an objective “an entire city within the city” and encompasses three transparent towers. It was built in November 2013.
Rem Koolhaas, a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000, is a Dutch architect who has designed and led a number of world’s renowned architectural projects including Venice Architecture Biennale 2014. He also designed Samsung Child Education & Culture Center of The Leeum Samsung Museum of Art and Museum of Art at Seoul National University in Korea.
The Korean fund manager reportedly has tried to acquire De Rotterdam for a long time, and finally secured the building after teaming up with Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi. Separately, Simone Investment Management is a subsidiary of Korean handbag maker Simone that attracted attention in June last year when world’s largest private equity Blackstone acquired a 30 percent stake in Simone at 300 billion won, marking the investor’s first investment in a Korean company. The handbag maker registered operating profit of 200 billion won on sales of 1 trillion won last year.
