April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korean real estate investment trusts  saw their earnings soar nearly 30 percent on-year to reach a fresh record high in 2017, the financial regulator said on March 9.

The combined net profit of 11 REITs stood at 506.1 billion won (US$472 million) last year, up 28.7 percent from the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

All the industry players were more than 10 billion won in the black, with their average net income coming to 46 billion won.

Their operating revenue reached 1.03 trillion won last year, up 31.3 percent from the previous year.  

According to the regulator, their combined assets surged 40 percent on-year to 1.34 trillion won as of end-2017, with total liabilities spiking 81.4 percent to 1.54 trillion won.

Their combined equity capital climbed around 22 percent on-year to 2.3 trillion won. The 11 REITs had 178.5 trillion won under their management as of the end of last year, up 14.6 percent from a year earlier.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)