M&G Real Estate has acquired a retail property in a residential neighbourhood of central Kobe, Japan as part of its strategy to diversify its Asian portfolio.
M&G Real Estate has acquired a retail property in a residential neighbourhood of central Kobe, Japan as part of its strategy to diversify its Asian portfolio.
The UK-based asset manager bought the Merado Daikai retail property for an undisclosed price as part of its core Asia real estate investment strategy.
The strategy is aimed at institutional investors in Asia, the UK and Europe. Japan now accounts for 3% of the core Asia portfolio.
Merado Daikai is a five-storey retail and office property adjacent to major transport links in Kobe. The property is primarily an outlet point for non-discretionary retail such as food and pharmacy items.
Fund manager Erle Spratt commented: 'This marks another milestone as we look to add value for our institutional clients. I am very happy with what the acquisition brings to our core Asia property portfolio as we continue to diversify and seek to improve risk-adjusted returns for our clients. We are working to source attractive assets in Japan to add to our portfolio in Asia.'
M&G Real Estate's core Asia real estate strategy holds eight real estate assets in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea and has assets under management of $1.2 bn (€872 mln).
M&G Real Estate said that it has seen a marked increase in investor appetite for Asian real estate in 2013, with new third-party investors committing $137 mln to its core Asia real estate strategy since the start of the year. The firm says that smaller pension schemes and insurance companies are increasing allocations and committing new capital to the asset class, with particularly strong interest from investors in the UK, other parts of Europe and the Americas as well as growing interest from institutional investors in Asia.
M&G Real Estate is a specialist investor in all major property sectors across the globe with more than £15 bn of assets.
