GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced Monday they had formed a joint venture partnership to acquire the D-Cube retail mall in Seoul from Daesung Industries for $263 million.
In a news release, the two big institutional investors — GIC, with estimated assets of more than $300 billion, and CPPIB, a Toronto-based investor with assets of C$238.8 billion ($206 billion) at the end of 2014 — said when the transaction closes, they’ll own 50% each of the mall, which was completed in 2011.
Jennifer Lewis, GIC’s head of communications, and Mei Mavin, director, corporate communications with CPPIB, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The news release said the mall will be rebranded as Hyundai Department Store and will be operated by Hyundai, “one of the top retail operators in South Korea.”
The announced joint venture is the second investment the two have collaborated on in the space of 10 days. On May 8, the two institutional investors announced separately that they would invest £1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) each in the U.K. mobile telecom business of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., together with three other investors.
