Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
Blackstone is poised to buy back a portfolio of Japanese rental apartments from troubled mainland insurer Anbang Insurance for JPY 300 billion ($2.7 billion) in what would be the largest property deal ever in Japan.
Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone, which has $163 billion in real estate assets under management, has signed an agreement to take back possession of 221 rental apartments the company had sold to Anbang three years ago for around JPY 260 billion, according to a source close to the deal who spoke to Mingtiandi.
The US private equity giant is buying the portfolio through a strategy focused on Japanese residential properties in major city centres including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka where there is high population growth driven by young professionals, the source added.
Should the deal complete, it would beat the record for the largest ever real estate acquisition in Japan set in 2007 when Morgan Stanley purchased 13 hotels for close to JPY 280 billion from Japanese airline ANA.
Blackstone representatives declined to comment on the deal when approached by Mingtiandi. The Nikkei Asian Review was the first to break the story.
Anbang is selling the apartments after formally putting the portfolio on the market – for the second time – in August last year, just eighteen months after Chinese regulators took control of the scandal-hit mainland insurer.
With chairman Wu Xiaohui detained for fraud in 2017 in the aftermath of the trophy hunting insurer’s $30 billion overseas shopping binge, Anbang’s first attempt at offloading the Japanese portfolio in 2018 failed to find a buyer.
Since then, Anbang, which shouldered its way onto the world stage by acquiring the Waldorf Astoria from Blackstone’s Hilton Hotels Group for $1.95 billion in 2014, has been racing to sell off assets to shore up its balance sheet.
The bulk of the Japanese apartments which Blackstone is acquiring from Anbang were part of the firm’s maiden apartment acquisition in the country in 2014 when it purchased 200 blocks of flats from General Electric for around JPY 190 billion.
Ref: Property Report
