GIC, Tosei Make $373M Bid for Japan’s Sankei REIT

Singaporean giant GIC and Japan’s Tosei Asset Advisors have launched a bid to buy Sankei Real Estate, a Tokyo-listed commercial REIT, for JPY 58.4 billion ($372.6 million).

The tender offer by the $800 billion sovereign fund and the unit of developer Tosei Corp proposes to acquire the 467,099 outstanding investment units of the trust, which holds interests in nine office buildings, mostly in Tokyo, as well as six hotels nationwide and a single logistics property. Neither GIC nor Tosei has a stake in Sankei REIT at present.

In stock exchange filings published Wednesday, GIC and Tosei announced an offer of JPY 125,000 per unit, representing a 21.4 percent premium to the prior business day’s closing price, while Sankei REIT said its board was unanimous in supporting the tender offer and recommended unitholders to tender their units. 

“The offerors intend to take the target private by acquiring all of the investment units, and if the total number of tendered investment units is equal to or exceeds the minimum number of units to be purchased (247,563 units), the offerors will purchase all of the tendered investment units,” said the REIT’s manager.

Sponsor on Board

Sankei REIT’s portfolio has a total acquisition value of JPY 93.9 billion ($600 million) and an appraised value of JPY 95.1 billion. The 16 properties were 81.4 percent occupied at the end of November 2025.

The trust’s top-valued asset is S-Gate Nihonbashi-Honcho, a 6,218 square metre (66,930 square foot) office building in Tokyo’s central Chuo ward with an appraised value of JPY 15.8 billion. The 11-storey tower in the Nihonbashi commercial district is the fourth property in the S-Gate series of mid-sized office buildings developed and managed by the REIT’s sponsor, Sankei Building.

The top non-office property, Hotel Intergate Tokyo Kyobashi, is appraised at JPY 9.6 billion and provides 200 guest rooms within a 10-minute walk of the Tokyo Station transport hub.

Sankei Building, a wholly owned unit of TV giant Fuji Media Holdings, has agreed to tender its entire 4.96 percent stake in Sankei REIT. The trust’s other large unitholders include Custody Bank of Japan (21.48 percent), Master Trust Bank of Japan (18.39 percent) and Nomura Trust and Banking Co (5.71 percent).

Should the deal win unitholder approval, GIC and Tosei plan to delist the REIT and pursue enhancement measures to realise the value of the portfolio’s properties, according to the filings.

Travis Lundy, an analyst at Quiddity Advisors, described the tender offer as “a decent bid if not a total knockout” and remarked that other larger REITs are cheaper.

“This gets Fuji Media out of a small asset and side business they don’t need, and it clears out a small office-heavy diversified REIT which doesn’t need to exist,” Lundy said.

Deepening Exposure

The bid for Sankei REIT is GIC’s latest property play in Japan, after the state-backed investor last year acquired 30 multi-family properties with a gross asset value of JPY 49 billion from Rava Partners’ Samty Holdings and purchased a separate portfolio of 14 residential assets through a fund set up with Germany’s Patrizia in 2022.

Overseas capital continues to feast on Japanese land and buildings, with PAG and KKR closing out 2025 by announcing their acquisition of Sapporo Real Estate in a deal valuing the beer maker’s property assets and operations at JPY 477 billion ($3 billion).

KKR was among the most aggressive foreign investors in Japan properties in 2025, with the company agreeing in November to acquire Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama for JPY 97 billion.

In February the private equity firm took control of Fuji Soft, and its extensive real estate portfolio, in a deal valuing the tech firm at $4 billion.