Ares, Abrdn, CBRE IM, JLL, KKR to Join Mingtiandi Tokyo Forum

With just two weeks to go before the big event, senior executives from some of the largest real estate investment managers have joined the roster of speakers set to take the stage at the Mingtiandi Tokyo Forum on 12 November.

During the past week top leaders from Ares Management, Abrdn, CBRE Investment Management, JLL and the Japanese REIT management unit of KKR have signed up to speak at the event, with the speaker roster now having grown to more than 30 people. More details on the programme are available here.

With the forum taking place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Japanese capital, more than 200 industry leaders are expected to attend the event, with more than 160 having already registered to attend, including senior executives from Macquarie Asset Management, EQT Exeter, Charter Hall, JP Morgan Asset Management and Mitsui & Co.

Tickets for the event are still available at the link above, with group rates available through Mingtiandi’s events team. For those unable to join the event in person, the programme will be streamed on MTD TV with recordings available during the days following the forum.

Ares Joins Keynote Panel, Abrdn on Residential

Joining the keynote panel which leads off the Tokyo Forum will be Bryan Southergill, a partner with Ares Management who serves as the firm’s head of Asia Real Estate.

With Ares having agreed earlier this month to acquire GLP’s fund management outside of China for $3.7 billion, Southergill will be appearing in the keynote panel alongside Hajime Watanabe, president and representative director with UBS Japan Advisors and Laurent Jacquemin, Head of Asia Pacific for the real assets division of AXA IM Alts.

After Abrdn earlier this month announced an expansion of its Japan real estate business via a residential investment mandate on behalf of Dutch pension investor PGGM, the asset manager’s head of Japan real estate Harumi Kadono will now be part of the residential investment panel.

In that session, Kadono will be speaking alongside Joseph Gagnon, co-head of real estate investment manager Rava Partners and Chedli Boujellabia, managing partner and CEO of Alyssa Partners, with an additional speaker to be named this week.

KKR on J-REITs, CBRE IM, JLL on Industrial

New to the panel on Japanese REITs and private funds is Naoki Suzuki, president and CEO of  KJR Management, unit of KKR with manages Tokyo-liste REITs Japan Metropolitan Fund and Industrial & Infrastructure Fund.

Suzuki will join the session alongside Atsushi Sato, head of the financial institution group for Japan with Singapore’s UOB; Hayato Tsuji, general manager with the real estate finance department at the Development Bank of Japan and Masakuni Taka, a senior director for investment with the private assets team at ORIX Life Insurance Corporation.

New to the panel on industrial investment in Japan are Tetsuya Fujita, managing director and country manager for Japan at CBRE Investment Management and Koji Naito, research director for Japan Capital Markets at JLL. Fujita and Naito will be speaking alongside Unified Industrial co-founder Ross Antoci in that 1:55 PM session.

Hospitality and Commercial

The forum also features a panel on hotel and lodging investment featuring David Cheong, a managing director with KKR who is co-head of acquisitions for the company’s Asia real estate team; Malcolm MacLean, co-founder and managing partner with Tokyo-based investment manager Star Asia Group; Seth Sulkin, president and chief executive of Pacifica Capital KK and Gary Kwok, chief executive of Axe Management.

A session on investment in office and retail real estate includes Takashi Imanaga, general manager for real estate finance at Mizuho Bank; Christopher Handte, chief executive officer with Tokyo Trust Capital; Yukihiko Ito, CEO of ESG software startup GOYOH and Taku Yamaumi, partner and head of Japan with LVMH-affiliated L Catterton Real Estate.

The forum also features solo spotlight interviews with Yoshiyuki Chosa, president for Japan at GLP Capital Partners and ESR co-founder Stuart Gibson.

In a spotlight interview session on opportunities in Japan’s life science and R&D real estate markets, Mingtiandi founder Michael Cole with interview Warburg Pincus principal, Tag Yuxiang; Lendlease Japan chairman and executive director for development partnerships, Andrew Gauci and Shigeko Mizutani, a managing director with the valuation advisory and consulting services division for Japan at CBRE.

A separate spotlight interview with Deloitte Tohmatsu Group will highlight approaches to investing in Japanese real estate with top partners from the organisation.

Appearing in that session will be Tomoko Sakai, a tax partner with Deloitte Tohmatsu Tax Co; Kazutaka Inoue, a manager with Deloitte Tohmatsu Risk Advisory and Yuki Sakamoto, a partner with DT Legal Japan as the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group.