VietNamNet Bridge - Hankyung Economic Times of South Korea has reported that AON Holdings - a Korean financial group - will take control of Vietnam's tallest building - Keangnam Landmark 72 in Hanoi.

The Keangnam Landmark 72 building.

According to Hankyung, on December 16, 2015, Samjong KPMG, which is in charge of selling debts of Keangnam Enterprises, chose AON Holdings as the top priority partner for this deal. The total loan that Keangnam borrowed to build the building in 2012 was 600 billion won ($510 million).

It is rumored that AON Holdings paid about 450 billion won to buy this debt. After the takeover of debts, AON Holdings will take control of this project.

On May 27, 2015, Yonhap news agency reported that the Seoul Court had approved the proposal of Keangnam Enterprises Inc. to sell Keangnam Landmark 72 to cope with the group’s liquidity crisis.

Previously, in early April last year, South Korean media reported that Goldman Sachs bank and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) wanted to purchase this building. Specifically, Goldman Sachs planned to buy back the loan of Keangnam at the price of $900 million while QIA would spend $800 million for this affair.

However, in mid-May the Korea JoongAng Daily, one of the four largest newspapers in South Korea cited information from QIA as saying that QIA denied the information that they would purchase the building.

The construction of Landmark Buildings 72, Vietnam's tallest building, was completed by Keangnam Enterprises in 2011 at the cost US$1.1 billion. This group is almost incapable of paying the loans that it borrowed to finance this project.

The company was delisted and has been under the control of creditors since March 2015. Reportedly, lenders eased some conditions for Keangnam thanks to the positive news about the QIA’s negotiation to acquire the building from Keangnam.

Na Son