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[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Koramco Asset Trust (hereinafter Koramco) announced on the 26th that it was selected as the ‘Sector Leader in the Asia Office Sector’ in the world’s most prestigious ESG evaluation, ‘GRESB 2022’.

GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is the world’s most authoritative ESG evaluation that comprehensively assesses the environmental and social impacts, as well as relationships with stakeholders, of real estate physical assets and their managers. This year’s evaluation was the largest ever, with 1,820 institutions from 74 countries worldwide submitting real estate assets totaling $6.9 trillion USD (approximately 9930 trillion KRW) for assessment.

Koramco raised the pride of the domestic asset management industry by receiving the highest rating in the real estate sector, the ‘5 Star’ rating, from GRESB earlier this month, and on this day was also selected as the Asia Office ‘Sector Leader.’ In the past, sector leaders in the Asia region had been monopolized by Japanese and Singaporean asset managers.

The title of ‘Sector Leader’ is awarded only to institutions that receive the highest score in each evaluation sector or to top-rated companies within one point of the highest score, effectively recognizing them as joint first place. Notably, GRESB does not select a sector leader if the top-ranked institution in a specific sector does not meet the absolute evaluation criteria. Therefore, institutions awarded this title are recognized as global ESG super-gap companies.

The reason Koramco can stand out in global ESG evaluations is due to its dedicated eco-friendly asset management capabilities developed since its founding. Koramco has managed assets by creating its own eco-friendly asset management indicators since before the concept of ESG existed in Korea, and recently has been enhancing its ESG capabilities in the environment and energy sectors by building an energy utilization database for all buildings under management.

In fact, the Majesta City Tower 2 building of the ‘Kokrep No. 41 REIT,’ a major evaluation target of this GRESB, was the first office building in Seoul to receive the highest eco-friendly rating, ‘LEED CS Platinum,’ from the U.S. Green Building Council. This building innovatively reduces greenhouse gas emissions by applying solar power generation facilities and an automatic energy management system, and realizes a circular economy through a reclaimed water system for water conservation and waste recycling.

Joonho Jung, CEO of Koramco Asset Trust, said, “The GRESB 5 Star rating and Sector Leader selection certify that Koramco’s asset management capabilities built over the years are world-class,” adding, “Going forward, Koramco will strengthen the ESG initiative of the domestic real estate investment industry by carrying out genuine ESG activities that show real figures to investors, not just superficial greenwashing.”

Meanwhile, Koramco is a real estate finance company that has maintained first place in the domestic private REITs sector for 21 consecutive years and recorded the highest operating revenue in the real estate trust industry in the first half of this year.

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