Heitman Opens Tokyo Office

TOKYO-Heitman has opened its first office in Tokyo in an effort to better service its clients in the region. The multinational real estate investment management firm tapped two professionals from the local office of Old Mutual. The new office will be located in the Shin-Tokyou Building in the financial district. Heitman is owned 50% by Old Mutual and 50% by Heitman partners.Takayuki Kiura and Eriko Kato, the new additions, have been partially assigned to Heitman for some time now, Heitman’s managing director of real estate securities Tim Pire tells GlobeSt.com. The two are now Heitman’s official ambassadors as it sub-advises on several REIT funds for Japanese investors and looks to introduce additional products to the market.”Old Mutual has an office there and we’ve been working with these two employees of Old Mutual for a period of time,” says Pire. “Since their time has primarily been spent with us, we thought it was maybe best to focus on Heitman completely.”Kiura will head Heitman’s Tokyo office as managing director. He previously served at Old Mutual’s financial services firm UAM-Japan and at Mitsubishi Estate. Kiura has a master’s degree in real estate development from MIT. Kato, VP of the new office, also joins Heitman from investment manager UAM-Japan. She previously served as director of research at the Association for Real Estate Securitization in Japan.Despite not having an office until now, Heitman already has a sizeable presence in the Japanese market. Pire says the firm has grown its assets under management there to $275 million from “about zero” at the start of the year. “I think we can grow from there,” he says. “REITs offer good diversification as asset class to the Japanese and the prospect for total returns are good on long-term basis.”The firm is a sub-advisor to Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd. for three funds for Japanese retail investors: the Nomura US REIT Open Mother Fund, an open-ended mutual fund focused on investing in US real estate securities, distributed by Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.; the Nomura US REIT Mother Fund, the first open-end mutual fund to focus on investments in both Japanese and US real estate securities, distributed by UFJ Trust Bank Limited; and the Nomura US REIT High Income Mother Fund, which invests in US common and preferred real estate securities, distributed by the Resona Group. Heitman was also selected by Sumitomo Trust Bank Asset Management Co., Ltd. to sub-advise two US real estate securities funds for Japanese pension funds and other institutional investors. These funds are distributed by Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. “We are seeing increasing interest in real estate investment among Japanese pension funds and other institutions, as well as individual investors,” notes Kiura. “Real estate is still a new asset class in the institutional arena, so educating investors on the portfolio benefits of property investment in the US and in Europe as well as in Japan is a priority for us.”Heitman’s president/chief executive Maury Tognarelli says in a prepared statement that the new office is part of the company’s three-year strategic plan for the firm. The plan includes “expanding our relationships in Japan,” by way of new clients and new products, and eventually creating new relationships in “the other Pacific Rim markets.”