On April 15th, Bloomberg’s Lisa Du reported that Japanese firms holding real estate assets are seeing substantial unrealized gains due to property values exceeding book values on their balance sheets.
This discrepancy is fueled by decades-long property retention, depreciating book values, and rising prices, notably in Tokyo.
Activist investors are now pressuring companies, exemplified by Elliott's campaign against Mitsui Fudosan, to sell off real estate assets. They advocate for reallocating proceeds to other business segments or returning them to shareholders through buybacks or dividends.
Hear more from Lisa on the story below:
Bloomberg text article is dated April 15th with the above video being aired on April 16th.
Sources:
Hidden Billions in Tokyo Real Estate Lure Activist Hedge Funds (Bloomberg; paywalled)
