SEOUL, KOREA - The bidding of the former Korea Electric Power Corp, headquarters building in Seoul's Gangnam will begin in earnest. The state-run electricity utility said on August 29 that it would put out a sale notice on the day and hold a competitive bidding by September 17. The company suggested the appraisal value of 3,334.6 billion won.

 

This is much higher than the government-announced base price of 1,483.7 billion won or the book value of 2,007.3 billion won. The bidders must offer prices higher than the appraisal value. The highest bidder will take the prized property.

 

Currently the potential bidders most interested in the deal are Hyundai Motor Group, Samsung Group, China's Greenland Holding Group, and Las Vegas Sands Corp. Of these, Hyundai and Samsung are considered the strongest contenders. Given more than 10 trillion won of investment to develop the site, however, both companies find it burdensome to jump into the deal easily.

 

Earlier in 2011, Samsung Life bought the site for the Korea Appraisal Board near the KEPCO site at the cost of 233 billion won. Samsung C&T once had a plan to develop the area into a large-scale commercial zone jointly with POSCO. Meanwhile, Hyundai Group plans to build a global business center on the site to gather all group companies under one roof while creating a cultural space for the citizens.