Daibiru president and CEO Takashi Maruyama
Osaka-based Daibiru acquires a City of London office block from Barings, with that deal leading today’s headline roundup. Also in the news, Canada’s BCI picks up a stake in KKR’s Philippine cell tower venture and fund manager BGO eyes $11 billion in Japan real estate investments.
Japan’s Daibiru Buys City of London Office Building From Barings for $228M
Japan’s Daibiru continues to expand its global real estate holdings, with the division of Mitsui OSK Lines having acquired a London office building near the Bank of England from Barings for £169 million ($228 million).
In a statement on Monday, Barings said it sold Capital House to the Japanese real estate investor on behalf of its core European real estate strategy, after having acquired the King William Street property in 2021. Read more>>
British Columbia IM Invests in KKR Philippine Cell Tower Venture
KKR, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Pinnacle Towers, an Asia-based digital infrastructure platform with a focus on the Philippines, on Monday announced that BCI will acquire a minority stake in Pinnacle Towers from KKR, which will remain the majority shareholder.
With Pinnacle Towers having scaled to become the largest independent tower company in the Philippines over the last five years, to around 7,000 towers, the partners aim to continue expanding their presence in the country’s digital infrastructure sector. KKR made its investment in Pinnacle Towers from its Asia Infrastructure Funds I and II. Read more>>
BGO Plans to Invest $11B in Japanese Real Estate
BentallGreenOak will accelerate real estate investments and hiring in Japan, joining a growing number of global firms that are betting money can be made as local companies offload property assets.
The Canadian firm plans to invest more than JPY 1.6 trillion ($11 billion) in Japanese property through 2027, mainly in office buildings and hotels, according to BGO Asia chairman Fred Schmidt. Read more>>
Bain Capital to Expand Japan Real Estate Acquisitions
Bain Capital is bolstering its property investments in Japan with a pipeline of deals, fresh after taking over Seven & I Holdings’ supermarkets and amassing more than $5 billion in real estate assets in the country.
The investment firm has about five deals under discussion that leverage a strategy to unlock value from real estate assets held by Japanese companies, said Man Kinoshita, a partner on the special situations team. Read more>>
Korea’s Non-Performing Loans Reached Record High in Q1
Non-performing loans in South Korea’s retail, wholesale and real estate sectors surged to record levels in the first quarter of 2025, driven by a prolonged economic slowdown and a slump in construction activity.
According to a comprehensive analysis of business-sector loan portfolios at the five major commercial banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH Nonghyup — released Sunday, non-performing loans in the wholesale and retail sectors totalled KRW 866.6 billion ($636.3 million), up 136 percent from a year earlier. This marked the highest level since comparable data became available in the first quarter of 2018. Read more>>
Seoul Condo Sales Revived in May
Transactions in Seoul apartments, which had paused after the reassignment of the land transaction permit system for the Gangnam three districts (Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa) and Yongsan, are reviving. Sales prices are also showing an upward trend.
The Korean government is monitoring the market trends but has determined that no additional regulations are necessary at this time. As the new government’s real estate policies have not yet been established, and there is a possibility that the market will stabilise after the strengthening of lending regulations in July, the government plans to strengthen its market monitoring. Read more>>
Japan’s Fuji Media Open to Spin-Off of Property Assets
Fuji Media Holdings’ incoming president said “all options” regarding its real estate operations remain on the table, including a possible spinoff along the lines of activist investor demands.
The Japanese entertainment group last month rejected a shareholder proposal from Dalton Investments calling for a different slate of directors and a spin-out of its lucrative real estate arm. But the company has yet to finalise its long-term strategy, Kenji Shimizu said in an interview Monday. Read more>>
Singapore’s Thakral Exploring ASX IPO of Australian Property Business
Property investor Thakral Corp’s associate GemLife is considering an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange in the form of stapled securities.
GemLife, a lifestyle resorts business in Australia, is in “advanced discussions with potential underwriters for the proposed IPO”, the mainboard-listed company said in a Friday filing. Thakral Corp holds an effective interest of 31.7 percent in GemLife through Thakral Capital. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on X, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
Leave a Reply