In Big Boost to its Global Ambitions, KKR Paying $2B for Japanese REIT Market Pioneer  

New York-based private equity giant KKR is paying $2 billion for one of Japan’s leading commercial real estate concerns and a pioneer of the Japanese Real Estate Investment Trust. KKR, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi and Swiss bank UBS Group have signed a complex agreement whereby a subsidiary of KKR is acquiring Mitsubishi Corp.-UBS Realty Inc., MC-UBSR. 

Founded in 2000, MC-UBSR is today one of the largest real estate asset managers in Japan with JPY1.7 trillion, US$15 billion, in assets under management. The business has approximately 170 employees managing two Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed REITs: Japan Metropolitan Fund Investment Corporation, JMF, and Industrial & Infrastructure Fund Investment Corporation, IIF.

“Japan is one of the most important and high-volume real estate markets in the world, and is a market we have been dedicated to investing in with a local team since 2006, said Hiro Hirano, CEO of KKR Japan and Co-Head of Asia Pacific Private Equity at KKR. “MC-UBSR has an excellent track record of serving investors across its REIT offerings and a strong commitment to enhancing its investments through a strategic approach to ESG.”

The transaction also provides KKR’s global real estate business – which manages US$41 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021 – with immediate scale in a large, important market.