(21 July 2021 – Japan) Goldman Sachs will expand investments in alternative assets like office buildings and data centers in Japan, consolidating the Bank’s principal investment division in the country with Asset Management's property division and other operations into a new merchant banking division.
“Japan is a major economy and will serve as a key hub within Asia,” said Goldman Sachs Japan Managing Director Takashi Murata, who heads merchant banking in Asia.
Goldman Sachs plans to roughly double annual property investments to about 250 billion yen ($2.29 billion) from the typical 100 billion yen to 150 billion yen. It will also provide financing and operational support for capital investment and overseas partnerships in the hotel sector, and ramp up efforts to develop data centers and logistics facilities.
Additionally, Goldman Sachs is planning a full-fledged return to private equity in Japan. The company invested in and rehabilitated the operator of Universal Studios Japan in the 2000s, but had exited the space in response to tighter regulations after the 2008 global financial crisis.
“We have received a large number of proposals lately,” Murata said. The company is considering mainly large-scale deals worth over 100 billion yen apiece.