Hillhouse hires Japan co-heads for real estate investment arm from Blackstone, source says #JapanFinance

By Sam Nussey and Miho Uranak

TOKYO (Reuters) -Hillhouse Investment has hired co-heads for its Japan real estate investment business, a person familiar with the matter said, as it bulks up its operations there.

Hillhouse has hired Jeremy Bleackley and Wataru Goto as co-heads of Japan for Rava Partners, the person said. The two join from Blackstone where they were managing directors of the Real Estate Group.

The source declined to be named as the information is not public.

Hillhouse is expanding in Japan, which has become a focus for investors as a drive to improve corporate governance encourages asset sales and take-private transactions.

The asset manager is looking to invest $1 billion to $2 billion annually in Japan and roughly double its headcount in there, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Hillhouse was founded by China-born dealmaker Zhang Lei in 2005. It is known for its hedge fund and private equity investments and has also moved into real estate and private credit.

Hires in Japan by Hillhouse include former Bain Capital partner Tomohiro Kikuta to lead the Japan operations and Wern-Yuen Tan, a former executive at PepsiCo.

Hillhouse’s investments in Japan include real estate developer Samty Holdings, which was valued at over $3 billion on an enterprise basis, and restaurant software business Dinii.

Rava Partners was established in 2020 and has invested more than $3 billion in 18 real estate companies in Asia, a source said.

(Reporting by Sam Nussey and Miho UranakaEditing by Christopher Cushing and Frances Kerry)