Ichigo Targets $3.6 Billion in Assets for Tokyo Property Funds

Ichigo Targets $3.6 Billion in Assets for Tokyo Property Funds

Ichigo Group Holdings Co., Japan’s third-biggest publicly traded property manager, aims to boost assets to at least 300 billion yen ($3.6 billion) by February for funds that will invest in Tokyo office buildings.

The increase in assets is the first in three years based on half-year figures from the company. The Tokyo-based firm, which had 266.6 billion yen under management as of August, plans to start “several” funds over the next few months,

Ichigo aims to start new funds after its assets halved from their peak in February 2007 and amid signs that Tokyo’s real estate market may have bottomed. Office building values in the capital declined 40 percent to 50 percent since their 2007 high, while the market for private real estate funds expanded 7.9 percent in the first half of the year, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s Japan unit and STB Research Institute Co.