Rava’s Samty Sells $330M Japan Residential Portfolio to Sovereign Fund

Samty Holdings has sold 30 multi-family properties with a gross asset value of JPY 49 billion ($330 million), as the Japanese real estate firm continues to transform from a developer model into an asset manager focused on the living sector after being bought out by Hillhouse Investment’s Rava Partners unit in January.

Under the terms of the transaction announced Tuesday, Samty is selling a pair of portfolios it developed to a sovereign wealth fund, the company said in a joint release with Hillhouse, Rava, Daiwa Securities and Tokyo-based investment manager Alyssa Partners. A set of 22 assets representing the majority of the properties have been sold to a vehicle invested by the sovereign fund and co-managed by Samty alongside Alyssa, while the remaining eight buildings were sold to a separate vehicle invested by the same fund and managed directly by Samty.

Market sources in Japan pointed to Singapore’s GIC as the likely buyer of the assets, with the sovereign fund having yet to respond to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.

“This investment and management partnership shows that investors, including international sovereign wealth funds, are recognising the new opportunities arising from our transformation into an investment platform,” said Samty president and CEO Yasuhiro Ogawa. “We are confident in our business model and the extensive experience that we have accumulated over the years, and we are glad to see this confidence shared by our partners in Japan and overseas.”

For GIC, the Samty announcement comes less than a month after the $800 billion fund purchased a separate portfolio of 12 Japanese residential assets through a €1 billion (then $1.03 billion) vehicle established with German investment manager Patrizia in 2022.

Anchored in Key Cities

The multi-family portfolio comprises 30 newly built assets, with 70 percent of the properties located in Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities. Samty did not disclose the names or addresses of the assets, saying only that they are in established neighbourhoods and near public transport.

Joe Gagnon, co-head of Singapore-based Rava, said Samty has raised more than JPY 100 billion since privatisation earlier this year, with the group attracting keen interest from investors in Japanese multi-family assets.

“This achievement showcases the robust demand and trust from our valued LPs and more importantly, demonstrates Samty’s strong in-house land sourcing, acquisition, development and management skills that enable the company to supply steady streams of high-quality assets to these funds and REITs,” Gagnon said.

This latest portfolio overhaul comes after a residential REIT sponsored by Samty announced plans last month to buy nine apartment buildings across Japan’s Honshu island for JPY 8.7 billion ($59 million) at the same time that it disposes of an equal number of ageing assets.

In July, Samty announced the JPY 58 billion ($391 million) final closing of its first dedicated hotel fund, as Hillhouse and Rava, alongside continuing shareholder Daiwa Securities, seek to bolster Samty’s existing capabilities while expanding the builder’s fund management business.

Hillhouse, the private equity firm founded by Zhang Lei in 2005 with seed capital from the Yale University endowment, aims to invest between $1 billion and $2 billion a year in Japan and roughly double the firm’s headcount in the country, according to a Reuters report.

Alyssa Ups Assets

The tie-up with Samty brings Alyssa’s assets under management to JPY 340 billion ($2.3 billion) across residential, hotel, office, logistics and retail properties.

“This latest mandate with one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the region represents an encouraging vote of confidence reinforcing Alyssa Partners’ position as one of the most trusted independent investment managers in the living sector in Japan,” said Alyssa managing partner, CEO and co-CIO Chedli Boujellabia.

Boujellabia told MTD TV in March that Alyssa hoped to add at least $1 billion in AUM in 2025, of which the majority would be residential assets. Last month the firm announced the acquisition of Lumiec un Minami Azabu, a 130-unit apartment complex in Tokyo’s central Minato ward, to push Alyssa’s multi-family AUM past JPY 200 billion.

Moving beyond its traditional multi-family focus, the investment manager in May revealed a partnership with Mitsubishi HC Capital Realty to acquire The Lively Fukuoka Hakata hotel.

Late last year, Alyssa teamed with China’s JD Property to buy two GLP warehouses in Chiba and Nagoya with a total gross floor area of 103,000 square metres, marking the first Japan logistics acquisition for both companies.