Babcock & Brown completes Japan buy

BABCOCK & Brown Japan Property Trust has completed the acquisition of interests in three properties for ¥5.5 billion ($A54.6 million).

Managing director Eric Lucas said these acquisitions have further diversified the portfolio by geography, asset type and tenant mix and importantly are immediately accretive to distributable earnings.

The first property, Sekijomachi is a residential building which was completed in March 2007. The property is located in an area known as Tenjin, around two kilometres North-East of central Fukuoka. It is 100% leased to a leading operator of 38 vocational colleges with more than 4,000 students.

The two additional properties, located in Western Japan, are both leased to the same tenant on standard non-cancellable leases with remaining terms of 10.6 and 8.5 years respectively.

BJT has also finalised the sale of Showa Yakubo, a small office building in Nihombashi, Central Tokyo, for ¥723 million ($A7.1 million), which is over 25% above the book value.

This property had an occupancy by income of 50.3% and an NOI yield of 1.75% following the departure of the largest tenant, Sankyo, in April 2007.

Following this sale, BJT’s portfolio comprises 44 properties with a combined value of ¥145.7 billion ($A1.4 billion).

Australian Property Journal