Koramco Establishes Dedicated Team for ESG Committee Organization... Participates in GRESB 2022

[Asia Economy Reporter So-yeon Park] Coramco Asset Trust and its subsidiary Coramco Asset Management announced on the 18th that they have organized an ESG committee and established a dedicated team to participate in GRESB 2022 (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark), which begins this March.

GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is a sustainability assessment organization that comprehensively evaluates the environmental, social, and stakeholder impacts of real assets such as real estate assets and public social facilities.

Based in the Netherlands, it has expanded its evaluation scope to Europe and North America, and recently evaluates ESG performance of real assets in major countries worldwide, including Asia and Oceania.

In particular, unlike general eco-certifications, GRESB comprehensively examines the policies of asset managers, social contributions, and communication among stakeholders, assigning scores through comparative evaluations by country and asset, thereby encouraging fierce competition among asset management companies.

Additionally, since the evaluation criteria are upgraded annually, the ESG levels of participating certified institutions also improve. Due to this rigorous relative evaluation method, it is recognized as the most credible ESG certification among global investors and the asset management industry.

Mark Watson, head of the Korean branch of ERM, the world's largest ESG consulting firm, said, "In major countries worldwide, the introduction of ESG in real estate investment is already considered essential," adding, "GRESB certification is recognized as the fairest standard for evaluating the ESG level of managed assets and is the first certification global investment institutions require when selecting investment targets."

Coramco is the undisputed number one operator in the domestic private REITs sector, managing approximately 25 trillion KRW in real estate assets combining REITs and real estate funds, and is regarded as the first in the asset management industry to introduce ESG.

Even in 2006, when the concept of ESG was not yet established domestically and there was no legal obligation, Coramco proactively introduced the outside director system. In 2010, in collaboration with KAIST Graduate School of Management, it independently developed the 'Green Smart Building Index' to manage the overall eco-friendliness of buildings.

At the end of last year, led by Chairman of the Board Yong-ro Yoon, representatives from each division and Cha Jeong-ha, co-founder of the carbon-neutral city research institute ‘Reimagining Cities Foundation,’ were appointed as ESG committee members, forming the ESG committee.

Earlier this month, Coramco established an ESG strategy team to accelerate ESG structuring. This GRESB certification is also part of ESG structuring, aiming to consolidate ESG functions scattered across various organizations and have the company-wide ESG capabilities evaluated.

GRESB 2022 will announce new ESG evaluation items in March, receive ESG status checks and performance evidence from participating companies by June, and disclose evaluation results in October.

Lee Jae-min, head of Coramco’s ESG strategy team, said, "Real estate asset management is the culmination of ESG, where environment, society, and stakeholders come together," adding, "Through this GRESB certification, we will prove that ESG contributes to enhancing investors’ returns and help raise ESG standards across the investment industry."

Meanwhile, Coramco recorded its highest-ever earnings last year with operating revenue of 194.3 billion KRW, operating profit of 42.7 billion KRW, and net profit of 31.2 billion KRW. Since welcoming future lifestyle culture company LF as a major shareholder in 2018 to expand synergy, it currently holds about 24% market share in the domestic private REITs sector and has maintained the number one position in this sector for 21 years as a real estate finance company.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.