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Secured Capital, part of Asian private equity
firm PAG, is trying to sell the 32-storey Pacific Century Place
Marunouchi, in a prime spot near the Tokyo railway station. It
bought the property for about 144 billion yen in 2009.
Investors are aggressively seeking properties as Tokyo prices
are expected to continue a rebound they have seen under Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe's growth policies of massive monetary and
fiscal stimulus.
Among other recent deals, Japan's Orix Corp and New York
investors Angelo Gordon & Co are seeking around 40 billion yen
for their stake in a Tokyo office building.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management is competing against at least two
other investors with similar bids, said the people with
knowledge of the deal. The investors were screened in an initial
bid and the sellers will award one of the final bidders
exclusive rights to negotiate the deal.
The other bidders could not immediately be confirmed.
A Goldman Sachs spokeswoman declined to comment. Officials at
Secured Capital could not be reached for comment.
The bids represent the biggest deal for an office property in
Japan since the global crisis of 2008, even though it looks set
to fall short of the 180 billion yen that Secured Capital
initially sought.
Pacific Century Place Marunouchi, completed in 2001, was bought
by K.K. daVinci Holdings in 2006 for 200 billion yen at a market
peak.
Shinsei Bank Ltd extended loans for the highly leveraged
transaction and took control of the property when daVinci became
unable to repay on time after Japan's real estate market crashed
in the global financial crisis.
Pacific Century is located in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward, where rents
are the highest and vacancy rates remain the lowest in Tokyo.
(1 US dollar = 102.4600 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by William Mallard and Matt
Driskill)
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