Rava’s Samty Reaches $391M Closing on First Japan Hotel Investment Fund

Just over a half-year after having been taken private in a transaction backed by Hillhouse Investment’s Rava Partners division and Daiwa Securities Group, Japanese real estate firm Samty Holdings has raised JPY 58 billion ($391 million) for its first dedicated hotel fund.

Eastgate-Samty Hospitality Fund I LP, which will be managed under a joint general partnership with top local real estate manager EastGate Group, reached a final close with backing from a number of domestic investors, with Rava, Hillhouse, Samty and Daiwa in a joint statement hailing the fundraising as evidence of Samty’s capabilities across the industry.

“The establishment of this fund embodies our business model as an accommodation developer that provides a full range of services from development to operation and exit, and is a major milestone in our strategic transformation since the delisting of the company,” said Samty Holdings president and CEO, Yasuhiro Ogawa. “In addition to the track record of hotel development and operation that we have cultivated over many years, we will maximize the value of our assets through collaboration with trusted partners in Japan and overseas.”

The deal follows through on a goal set by Hillhouse and Rava when they launched the JPY 171.9 billion buyout of then Tokyo-listed Samty last year, to bolster the company’s existing capabilities while expanding its fund management business.

10 Hotels with 1,530 Rooms

Eastgate-Samty Hospitality Fund I LP holds 10 hotels in major cities of western Japan, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Hiroshima, with the partners noting that the vehicle targets high-occupancy assets amid sustained tourism growth.

Spanning 1,530 rooms, the portfolio averages 85 percent occupancy, with the fund’s organisers described properties as achieving, “strong profitability in an environment of sustained growth in both inbound and domestic demand coupled with constrained supply.”

“Real estate investment by both domestic and overseas institutional investors remains robust. In today’s investment climate, Samty’s establishment of a private real estate fund focused on hotels marks an important step that symbolizes the transformation of its business model – a development we view as highly significant,” said Daiwa Securities Group president and CEO Akihiko Ogino.

Investors acquired JPY 173 billion worth of Japanese hotel assets in the first quarter of 2025, marking the fourth straight quarter of rising year-on-year commitments to the sector, according to CBRE. While the January through March total was down from the record JPY 454 billion in hotels which traded hands in the final three months of 2024, it represented an 81 percent increase from the first quarter of last year.

That deal streak has continued, with Singapore’s SC Capital Partners announcing In early April that it had acquired a 165-room hotel in Kagoshima, on southern Japan’s Kyushu island on behalf of its $1 billion Japan hospitality fund. 

Later that same month US-based Lone Star Funds announced its acquisition of a 175-room serviced apartment block in Yokohama from Singapore’s Mapletree Investments with plans to convert the rental units into an upscale branded hotel.

Heading for Platform Status

Following the delisting of its shares at the end of January, Samty became a private company with the company’s new leadership vowing to set a course for sustainable growth by moving away from pursuing capital gains as a real estate developer in favour of generating income through mergers and acquisitions by operating as an investment platform. 

Samty’s management and its partners have said they aims to transform the 43-year-old firm into Japan’s first regional accommodation asset manager with a fully integrated business model, with the fund closing marked as significant step along that journey. 

”The successful closing of this fund highlights the transformation of Samty into an emerging leader in Japan’s fund management sector,” said Joe Gagnon, co-Head of Rava Partners. “It also reflects the strong confidence investors have in our platform and strategy. We look forward to building on this momentum with additional fund launches in the near future.”