LG Group to sell China headquarters buildings for $1.15bn

Seoul, Feb 9 (IANS) LG Group has said that it has decided to sell its two Chinese headquarters buildings for 1.37 trillion won or $1.15 billion.

The LG Beijing Twin Towers, two 31-story buildings in Beijing, will be sold to RECO Changan Private Ltd., a subsidiary wholly owned by the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., according to the business group.

Three LG companies — LG Electronics Inc., LG Chem Inc. and LG International Corp. — will sell off their stakes in the LG Holding Hong Kong, which owns the skyscrapers, Yonhap news agency has recently reported.

LG said the sale is aimed at securing liquidity amid global economic uncertainties and funding its future growth engines. The company added the deal will be completed no later than April.

LG spent $400 million to build the towers, located in the Chaoyang district of the Chinese capital, in 2005.

Meanwhile, LG has become the first major South Korean company to give Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 a miss and others may soon follow suit, considering the threat that the coronavirus poses, according to industry watchers.

“LG Electronics is closely monitoring the situation related to the novel coronavirus outbreak, which was recently declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation as the virus continues to spread outside China,” the company said in a statement earlier this week.