GE Capital Real Estate, Aberdeen Start $400 Million Tokyo Property Fund
General Electric Co. (GE)’s real estate arm, with $73 billion of property investments, and Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (ADN) said they have set up a $400 million fund that will invest in residential buildings in Tokyo.
The joint venture, named Tokyo Residential JV, will target studio and one-bedroom apartments in Japan’s capital over the next two years, GE Capital Real Estate and Aberdeen Asset said in an e-mailed statement. The companies don’t expect any impact from Japan’s earthquake in March on the fund, according to the statement.
The fund is starting in the wake of the magnitude-9 earthquake on March 11, signaling confidence among investors that are seeking risk-adjusted returns. The fund will focus on properties in Tokyo where the population continues to grow, bucking the trend of an overall decline, the companies said.
“This is another clear sign of our continuing confidence in the Japan market,” said Mark Norbom, the president and chief executive officer of GE Japan, in the statement.
In 2008, GE Capital Real Estate, which has been investing in real estate in Japan since 1998, started a global investment management business to manage clients’ money instead of using its own cash to invest in properties, the statement said.
Aberdeen Asset, with $287 billion in assets, began investing in Asian properties in 2007 and has $36 billion invested in real estate, according to the company.
Tokyo and its eight surrounding prefectures account for 35 percent of Japan’s population and 39 percent of its gross domestic product, according to Cabinet Office figures from 2007, the most recent data available on prefectures and regions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Chu in Tokyo at kchu2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net
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