Blackstone has made an offer to buy a Japanese residential property specialist.
The investment manager’s offer for closed-end, Guernsey-registered Japan Residential Investment Company values the firm at £152.6m (€215.5m).
Alan Miyasaki, director of Blackstone, said: “We continue to believe in the Japanese residential sector.
“The offer represents an opportunity for Blackstone’s real estate business to gain further exposure to high quality and well-located residential assets in Tokyo and other major cities in Japan.”
JRIC’s 90,000sqm portfolio is mainly located in Tokyo’s wards.
Around 25% of its assets are in the city’s five central wards, with a further 30% in Tokyo’s 23 wards.
The company also has assets in Osaka and Nagoya.
In an August fact sheet, the company said signs of rent growth were emerging, with rents in Tokyo’s 23 wards increasing last year by 0.4%, the first year-on-year increase since the financial crisis.
“Increased demand and a general scarcity of investment properties is compressing yields and putting upward pressure on asset prices,” the company said.
According to JRIC, the price per square metre of new condominiums in Tokyo has risen 9% year on year.
Raymond Apsey, non-executive chairman at JRIC, said the company recommended Blackstone’s offer to shareholders and that it has also received a separate approach from a third party that may lead to an offer.
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