MUFG Raising $675M for Japan Property Fund and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

One of Japan’s biggest banks plans to raise a $675 million fund to invest in domestic real estate, with that report leading today’s headline roundup. Also in the news, institutional investors seek to exit private equity vehicles amid the financial market rout and India’s Welspun One secures a loan for a Mumbai logistics park.

MUFG Raising $675M Fund to Shop for Japan Property Bargains

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group plans to invest JPY 100 billion ($675 million) in real estate over three years, as MUFG takes advantage of Japan’s undervalued property market, Nikkei has learned.

The Japanese group will debut a fund with a JPY 30 billion contribution from MUFG Bank, its flagship banking unit. It also will pursue external contributions to take total investments to JPY 100 billion. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking will operate the fund, investing in special purpose companies created by property funds and others. MUFG intends to consider expanding the initiative to nearly JPY 200 billion. Read more>>

Institutional Investors Said Looking to Exit PE Funds

Large institutional investors are studying options to shed stakes in illiquid private equity funds after the rout in global financial markets pummelled their portfolios, according to top private capital advisors.

The calls by pensions and endowments seeking ways to exit their investments, probably at discounts to their stated value, are a bad sign for the $4 trillion buyout industry. Industry groups such as Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle all saw their stocks plunge between 15 percent and more than 20 percent on Thursday and Friday. Read more>>

India’s Welspun Lands $270M Loan for Mumbai Logistics Projects

Welspun One Logistics Parks has secured funds worth INR 23 billion ($270 million) from National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development for its logistics park project at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority in Navi Mumbai.

This is the maiden warehousing-related financing made by NaBFID, established in 2021 as a specialised development finance institution aimed at supporting India’s infrastructure sector. Read more>>

Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre Site on the Market for $193M in Singapore

Singapore’s Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre, a six-storey strata-titled building completed in 1982, is being marketed in a collective sale at a guide price of S$260 million ($192.8 million). Along with the building, an adjoining plot of land is also up for sale separately, via private treaty. Combining the two sites will yield a total site of 5,443 square metres (58,588 square feet).

If the two sites are amalgamated, it can be rebuilt into a mixed-use development, said sole marketing agent CBRE. Alternatively, the Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre site can be refurbished into a newer retail mall. Read more>>

Vietnam’s Novaland Aims to Complete Restructuring by End 2026

2025 is expected to be a year of recovery for Vietnamese developer Novaland despite significant challenges, and the company anticipates completing its restructuring by the end of 2026 to enter a new growth cycle in 2027, according to its leadership.

Since late 2022, the bond market crisis, triggered by the Saigon Commercial Bank scandal combined with a frozen real estate market, has led many businesses, including Novaland, to face serious cash flow problems. Read more>>

Sharp Closes Sale of Osaka LCD Facility for Conversion to AI Data Centre

Electronics company Sharp has sold part of a former LCD screen factory in Osaka to telecom KDDI for an AI data centre. The companies this week announced that KDDI has taken over part of the Sakai Display Product Corp site in the Sakai area.

Reports that Foxconn, Sharp’s parent company, was planning to turn the site into a data centre campus came to light last year. Telehouse parent KDDI first signed a deal with Sharp to develop a data centre at the Sharp factory last June and announced plans to acquire the site in December. Read more>>

India’s Tribeca Launches Rental Housing Platform

Tribeca Developers announced the launch of Trilive, India’s first dedicated rental housing development platform, with its inaugural project in Andheri, Mumbai. Partnering with Housr, a luxury co-living operator, Trilive aims to reshape urban living by catering to the housing needs of millions of millennials across India’s top cities.

For its first project, Trilive is collaborating with Starwing Group, a Mumbai-based developer from whom it has purchased 650 studios in Marol, Andheri. India’s metropolitan hubs are estimated to host 10 million single millennials in the corporate workforce, young professionals who prefer renting over buying and can typically afford 200 square feet (19 square metres) of real estate, ideally a studio apartment. Read more>>

Hong Kong Residential Leasing Supported by Mainland Influx

Hong Kong’s residential landlords are receiving support from people working for hedge funds and cryptocurrency firms as traditional sources remain sluggish, Savills Hong Kong said Wednesday in a research report.

Leasing transactions occurred mainly in the lower rental brackets in Kowloon, Savills said, driven by an influx of talent from the mainland. Read more>>

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