LaSalle Investment Management : News - LaSalle Investment Management, e-Asset Investment and Asset Realty Managers Establish Business Collaboration to Promote Growth Strategies

LaSalle Investment Management, e-Asset Investment and Asset Realty Managers Establish Business Collaboration to Promote Growth Strategies

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LaSalle Investment Management Japan K.K. (“LaSalle Japan”), a local affiliated company of LaSalle Investment Management Inc (“LaSalle”) that manages over USD47 billion in real estate globally and over JPY580 billion in Japan; e-Asset Investment Corporation (“e-Asset”), a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Japanese REIT; and Asset Realty Managers Co., Ltd. (“Asset Realty Managers”), an asset management company of e-Asset, today agreed on a business collaboration focusing on maximizing investment value and performance for investors of e-Asset by expanding and improving their real-estate portfolio with high quality assets.

The business collaboration is structured so that: 1) LaSalle Japan will acquire all issued shares of Asset Realty Managers and send a non-executive director to the board of directors, 2) e-Asset will acquire two retail assets of LaSalle’s private real estate funds, and 3) LaSalle will obtain third-party-issued new units of e-Asset.

As a result of this transaction, Asset Realty Managers will change its name to LaSalle Investment Advisors K.K. as of November 19. e-Asset will officially be re-named after approval at the general meeting of investors scheduled for next January. As part of LaSalle’s commitment to this new endeavor, Hirotaka Uchiyama, Representative Director of LaSalle, will join the board of directors of Asset Realty Managers as a non-executive director.

This collaboration between firms means that e-Asset can expand and improve the quality of the assets in its portfolio and increase the investment performance for its investors.

Hirotaka Uchiyama, stated that, “The collaboration with Asset Realty Managers and e-Asset will significantly enhance value for e-Asset shareholders as we reposition and expand e-Asset’s portfolio through the use of our global expertise in real estate investment management and our substantial human resources to provide growth and superior returns.”
“In doing this, we aim to maximize investment values and provide investment opportunities for a broader category of investors. We will strategically refocus the portfolio on offices and retail properties from the current diversified sector portfolio, which also includes residential and hotels. Plans for the next three to five years include the establishment of an efficient organization and an increase in staff to strengthen investment management functions. Two properties will be added to the current e-Asset J-REIT to immediately increase the portfolio size to JPY122.4 billion and over the next three to five years we intend to expand the portfolio size to JPY300 billion through the acquisition of high-quality assets."

Masayuki Tanaka, Executive Officer of Asset Realty Managers Co., Ltd., declared that, “We will become a subsidiary of LaSalle through this collaboration, but will maintain the independence of our management system, directors and employees with the best interests of our investors in mind. We expect that our real estate portfolio will be expanded and strengthened through our collaboration with LaSalle. Furthermore, it will become possible to create more value and sustainable income growth by leveraging LaSalle’s highly reputed management know-how, its in-depth knowledge, abundant experience in Japan and global real estate markets, and its strong ability to source new attractive investment opportunities in Japan."