CBRE Capital Advisors Strengthens its Cross-Border Investment Services

CBRE (headquarters: Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) is pleased to announce that it has strengthened its advisory services for cross-border investments.

Cross-border investment has seen a significant growth over the past few years, both by Japanese capital in overseas markets, and international capital in Japanese markets. Despite the consistent growth, changes in level of investor sophistication and global economic environment have led to a range of new developments in cross-border investment.

In particular, localization by Japanese investors in overseas markets is rapidly accelerating as investors further diversify their approach for overseas investments. Japanese institutions have begun to focus more on individual properties or specific strategies, often by club deals or joint ventures with local players, rather than its traditional approach of putting smaller lot sizes in multiple funds for the purpose of diversification. Japanese developers and real estate companies have also begun to evolve. Rather than passively investing via Japanese or local partners through their relationships, they have started to tie their own business activities directly into overseas markets independently.

While activities in many major overseas markets have recently stagnated as a result of the current economic environment, including interest rate hikes and political instability, interest in Japan has rapidly increased due to Japan’s super-low interest rates and weakening yen. In addition, scale of the market, liquidity, and matureness, together with the stability offered by the quality of its properties and the reliability of its tenants, all serve to make Japan increasingly attractive, making it a safe haven for global capital.

As part of CBRE ‘s efforts to continuously strengthen its cross-border investment advisory business, Noboru Hirabayashi, an industry veteran, has joined as Senior Director and Head of CBRE Capital Advisors on July 1st, 2022. His appointment will further elevate CBRE Capital Advisors’ capabilities in the real estate investment banking sector.

Hirabayashi has more than 20 years of experience in real estate investment, management, and financing, both in and outside Japan. Based in Tokyo, he will provide a wide range of advisory services for domestic and overseas investors.

CBRE Capital Advisors provides comprehensive support for all parties involved in real estate investment, from institutional investors to developers to financial institutions. Services include advisory and analytic services for the financing of real estate transactions, whether they be via equity and debt, structured financing, fund placement, M&A, or joint ventures. Major services include...

• Fund placement
• Joint venture and co-investments
• Investment advisory services
• Debt structuring
• Secondary fund positioning trading

Noboru Hirabayashi comments: “Overseas investments by Japan-based investors are constantly evolving. After making a foray in overseas markets over the years, they are now expanding their footprints in multiple markets and transitioning to a localization stage. In this changing environment, we are also expanding our services to support investors in overseas markets. In addition to our regularly engaged advisory services and equity/debt placements, we will be actively supporting investors for local project sourcing, JV formation, strategic partnership as well as buy-side advisories on an individual deal basis. Real estate has always been a local product; by leveraging CBRE’s global network and local knowledge, we aim to make a greater contribution to Japanese investment activities overseas. For inbound investments, we are currently in a period where there is great interest in Japan. In addition to financing arrangement services, we will also act as a mediator not only at the transaction stage, but also throughout the investment period by collaborating with our asset management team. CBRE is the world’s largest commercial real estate advisory firm and I look forward to providing value-added services to our clients, utilizing Capital Advisors team’s knowledge and extensive experience in the real estate and finance industry”

CBRE Capital Advisors’ outbound investment services

[Noboru Hirabayashi biography]
Hirabayashi joined CBRE K.K. on July 1, 2022, as Senior Director, Capital Advisors. Prior to joining CBRE, he worked for Diamond Realty Management, a real estate investment management arm of Mitsubishi Corporation, where he specialized in cross-border real estate investment and operation, spending considerable time on-site. He most recently served as Managing Director at Diamond Realty Management’s Los Angeles office, where he launched multiple equity and debt funds in the U.S. over a period of five years. Before Diamond Realty Management, he led the development of joint ventures and investment management programs at GE Capital Real Estate.