Patrizia Establishes Japan Foothold with Buyout of Tokyo’s Kenzo Capital

Germany’s Patrizia Immobilien has acquired Kenzo Capital Corporation, a Tokyo-based real estate advisory and asset management firm, giving the European real estate investment manager its first foothold in Japan.

Augsburg-based Patrizia unveiled the move in an announcement this week noting that the acquisition of Kenzo, which had already partnered with the German firm for investments in Japan, allowed it to continue its expansion into Asia.

“The acquisition of Kenzo is a continuation of the cooperation we have with them and is an opportunity for us to further grow our global network,” Wolfgang Egger, Chief Executive Officer of Patrizia said in a statement. “This acquisition offers ‘two-way’ benefits for many of our clients as well as new ones. Crucially, it secures a platform that will allow us to continue our drive to help deploy Asian capital in the European markets we have been actively investing in for almost four decades.”

The deal includes Patrizia taking over the fund management and placement activities of Kenzo Capital’s Munich-based affiliate, Kenzo Japan Real Estate GmbH, according to the statement.

Building on an Existing Relationship

Kenzo Capital’s nine-person team, with Kenzo Japan Real Estate GmbH acting as fund manager, launched the Kenzo Japan Residential Fund in 2017 with an initial 30 million euro ($34.6 million) investment in a set of four Tokyo apartment buildings.

The fund targets multi-family properties primarily in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas, as well as Nagoya and Fukuoka and, in statements published in 2017 indicated that it was targetting equity investments of 250 to 300 million euros for a total investment volume of 480 to 550 million euros.

Buying a Decade-Old Platform

Kenzo Capital was founded in 2008 by Hypo Real Estate veteran Dr Leonard Meyer zu Brickwedde as a platform for managing foreign investments in Japanese real estate, with a particular focus on European institutions.

Kenzo launched its 2017 fund in cooperation with Patrizia, which indicated in its statement that it had raised approximately 3 billion euros from Asian investors “over the past few years.” Patrizia now has 24 offices globally, including client relationship hubs in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, and the US, as well as across Europe.