"Sleeping Headquarters Turn Into a Financial Card"... Companies Reopen Their Real Estate Ledgers [fn Market Watch]

[Financial News]  Companies are taking another look at real estate that has long sat buried on their balance sheets. Rather than simply holding headquarters or factories, they are seeking to boost corporate value and capital efficiency through revaluation, development and sales.
According to the real estate investment banking industry on the 28th, Daehan Sugar has recently begun analyzing development strategies and business feasibility for three properties it owns: Daehan Sugar Building in Sincheon-dong, Seoul; Dongin Building in Pil-dong; and Plaza Building in Yeoksam-dong. Genstarmate is handling the consulting work and will review how each asset can be used, including development, remodeling or retention.
What stands out is that the three assets are being analyzed as a single portfolio, not as separate buildings. The move is seen as an attempt to turn long-held real estate into strategic assets rather than non-operating ones.
Vivian has moved straight into monetization. The company has put its Yongsan headquarters in Seoul and a commercial property in Gwangbok-dong, Busan, on the market and selected BDO Sunghyun LLC as the sales adviser. In particular, the Yongsan headquarters has a book value of about 17.4 billion won, while its market value is said to exceed 100 billion won by a wide margin, drawing attention to the gap between book value and market price.
Asset revaluations are also continuing among listed companies. In the first half of this year alone, 18 listed firms disclosed the results of asset revaluations. Jeongwon Ensys has recently begun fair value assessments of eight properties it owns, including its headquarters in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. In particular, as the potential value of the Sinsa-dong headquarters site comes into focus, attention is on whether the asset value long buried on the books will be realized.
BOOKOOK SECURITIES also confirmed a revaluation gain of about 57.7 billion won through a revaluation of its Yeouido headquarters, while DAEWON CHEMICAL and Hanchang Paper also brought the book value of their land holdings closer to market reality.
There are also cases where revaluation has gone beyond paper gains and led to actual monetization. JoongAng Holdings is working to monetize three assets, including the JoongAng Ilbo and JTBC building in Sangam-dong and a studio in Ilsan, Goyang, at a scale of about 550 billion won. The structure involves selling the properties and then leasing them back, a sale-and-leaseback model that turns capital tied up in real estate into cash.
Meanwhile, the real estate investment banking industry said the way it views corporate real estate, or CRE, is changing. The reason is that strategies centered on revaluing existing assets or developing and selling them to secure investment funds are gaining prominence over new borrowing or capital increases.
A senior official in the real estate investment banking industry said, "In the past, corporate real estate transactions were closer to simple sales for liquidity. Recently, however, the options have become much more diverse, ranging from revaluation to development and monetization." The official added, "Demand is rising for ways to use real estate trapped on the balance sheet as a tool to raise corporate value and capital efficiency."


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