Bahrain’s Investcorp launches presence in Japan

Investcorp has announced its entry into the Japanese market with the opening of its office in Tokyo.

This will allow the firm to provide global alternative investment solutions in Japan, in addition to setting the grounds for its direct private equity and real estate investing in the Japanese market.

The firm has also appointed Professor Heizo Takenaka as the chairman of Investcorp Japan.

Professor Takenaka served as Japan’s Minister of Economic/Fiscal Policy in 2001, before adding Financial Services to his mandate in 2002 and Privatisation of The Postal Services in 2004, and finally becoming Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications from 2005-2006.

He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Keio University and Professor at Toyo University, while also sitting on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum and on Investcorp’s International Advisory Board since July 2020.

Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman, Investcorp commented: “We are looking forward to further expand our base of Japanese investors and bring new investment capital into the region, namely from the GCC. We are excited to work with Professor Takenaka and our growing team on the ground to develop our offerings in Japan for the benefit of our clients, partners, and other stakeholders in the country.”

Hazem Ben-Gacem, co-CEO, Investcorp, added: “We are very proud to launch our operations in Japan and to be opening an office in Tokyo. Our Asian footprint today is more prominent than ever. Increasingly, Japanese investors are seeking access to global alternative investment strategies that we are well positioned to provide given our decades of experience in Asia. We are proud to build on our existing relations with Japanese investors who currently allocate more than USD two billion dollars of AUM to our investment products”.

Takenaka said: “In an era of high inflation rate and volatile currency fluctuations, coupled with the aging demography, Japan needs to promote foreign investments by sophisticated investors to improve the asset return. Investcorp’s rich experience in global alternative investments would contribute to our wealth management industry at its inflexion point, which calls for a shift from savings to investments.”

The Tokyo team will join the company’s wider Asia team that includes 40 professionals operating across Asia.

In other news, last month, Investcorp announced that it is planning to invest up to $1bn in the real estate market in the GCC over the next five years.

This follows its first real estate acquisition in Saudi Arabia. The investment is a brand new, 215,000 square feet temperature-controlled warehouse located in Dammam. This is the first of $100m-worth of real estate investments that the firm is currently assessing in the kingdom.

Read: Bahrain’s Investcorp set to invest $1bn in GCC real estate over five years

The Dammam warehouse is fully leased to Racking Systems Logistics Services Company, a third-party logistics company, which serves the Saudi market in the temperature-controlled warehousing and distribution segment.

The investment in the warehouse – which can store up to 32,000 pallets of goods – will bring the value of the company’s global warehousing logistics investments to over $4bn, representing approximately 42 million square feet of industrial space.