Insights and analysis on the Japan market.
Mitsubishi Corporation and UBS are reportedly weighing up the sale of Mitsubishi Corp UBS Realty in Japan for circa US$1.7bn. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Group is rumoured to be in pole position to acquire the company. The JV platform manages two major domestic REITs with an aggregate market cap of over US$9bn.
GIC is acquiring a portfolio of hotels, ski resorts and golf courses across Japan from Seibu Holdings for circa US$1.3bn following a year-long marketing process. Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, KKR, Fortress, and other large institutional investors, are rumoured to have also bid on the portfolio. The anchor assets, which make up the majority of the value of the 30+ asset portfolio, are larger hotels managed under Seibu’s Prince Hotel brand in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Sapporo and Hiroshima.
The multi-family residential sector in Japan continues to attract interest from large institutional investors. Allianz and Ivanhoe Cambridge have just announced a US$2bn closed-ended vehicle to focus on the sector.
Fortress Investment is acquiring Accordia Golf, Japan’s largest operator of golf courses, for US$3.5bn. Accordia manages over 170 courses in Japan, and was originally established by Goldman Sachs and listed on the TSE back in 2007.
Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto top Conde Nast’s 2021 global awards as the most attractive cities to visit. International travelers are clearly keen for more of Japan. This bodes well for the hospitality sector there as it reopens to international travelers over the coming months, and various government initiatives are rolled out to boost domestic demand