Nomura Buying Japanese Hotel Manager From Rail Operator Odakyu for $126M

Nomura Real Estate Holdings is buying a Japanese hotel operator from Odakyu Electric Railway as the infrastructure firm continues to struggle with the lingering impact of the pandemic on the travel industry.

Odakyu announced last week that it is divesting its holdings in Urban Design System after being sole shareholder in the hotel operator since 2016. While the transaction price remains undisclosed, the railway company said that it expects to book ‘special profits’ of JPY 18 billion ($126 million) from the sale after the transaction concludes in April 2024.

“In recent years, the business environment surrounding our group has undergone significant changes due to factors such as population decline, shifts in people’s values, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. With 2021-2023 as a period of structural transformation, we have been focusing on creating mechanisms for sustainable growth, not only restoring financial health but also restructuring the business portfolio,” Odakyu said in a statement regarding the disposal.

As of December 2022, UDS reported that its liabilities exceeded its assets by JPY 10.6 billion, narrowing from a JPY 8.7 billion spread in the same month of 2021, with the company having failed to pay dividends to shareholders in the past three years, according to Odakyu’s investor disclosure. So far this year the company has sold over $1 billion in property assets to investors including Gaw Capital Partners and KKR.

Heightened Hospitality

The deal will make Nomura the sole shareholder in UDS, which manages 1,855 rooms in 16 properties across Japan and China including locations in Tokyo, Sapporo, Kyoto, and Beijing.

Nomura highlighted the Onsen Ryokan Yuen Shinjuku in central Tokyo as among the most attractive of the UDS properties. Room rates at the 2019-vintage hotel near the National Garden range up to JPY 40,000 per night for a 51-square-metre (549-square-foot) room, according to the operator’s website.

Nomura said it is acquiring the hotel operator as it seeks to expand its hospitality holdings with an eye to capitalising on Japan’s growing popularity with overseas tourists.

“The hotel business will play a significant role in the group’s future growth,” said Nomura in its statement regarding the share acquisition. “In response to the increasing demand, especially from inbound needs, the group aims to promptly establish a business foundation and accelerate the growth speed.”

The acquisition of UDS is Nomura’s latest move to expand its hospitality activity with the investment giant having last year merged local hotel operator UHM into its business after acquiring the company in 2019.

Red-Hot Hotels

The deal with Nomura is Odakyu’s latest hospitality disposal after it sold the Hyatt Regency Tokyo in one of Asia Pacific’s largest hotel deals of 2023. In that March transaction KKR and Gaw Capital partnered to buy the 746-room hotel next to Shinjuku Central Park for around $500 million, according to a report from JLL.

On the same day that the Hyatt Regency deal was revealed, the travel company announced that it had sold the Odakyu Dai-Ichi Seimei Building next to the hotel to Dai-Ichi Life Holdings and expected to book a gain of JPY 35.5 billion on the disposal. Records from MSCI Real Assets show the property was sold for $521 million.

Odakyu’s hotel sales are part of a wave of hospitality asset disposals by Japanese rail companies, with Seibu Holdings, which owns Seibu Railway, selling 31 hotels to Singapore’s GIC for JPY 150 billion in February of last year.

In March of 2021 transport company Kintetsu Group Holdings sold eight hotels across Japan to Blackstone for a reported JPY 60 billion.