This file photo shows commercial complex Yebisu Garden Place in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on Sept. 21, 2025. (Kyodo)
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Sapporo Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday it will sell its real estate business to an entity of investment funds including U.S. firm KKR for 477 billion yen ($3 billion), with the proceeds to be reinvested to strengthen its core alcohol operations.
The entity, which also involves Asia-focused PAG Investment Management Ltd., will acquire 51 percent of shares in Sapporo Holdings’ real estate subsidiary in June 2026, before purchasing all shares by June 2029.
The subsidiary, Sapporo Real Estate Co., owns Yebisu Garden Place, a well-known commercial complex in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. But ahead of the transaction, Sapporo Holdings will secure 30 percent of trust beneficiary rights in the property so it can continue to receive profits generated there.
“Sapporo Holdings will focus on and further strengthen its alcoholic beverages business, where it has competitive advantages,” said the company whose subsidiaries include Sapporo Breweries Ltd., which is headquartered in the commercial complex.
Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into growth initiatives within its alcoholic beverages business as Sapporo Holdings seeks to enhance its ability to provide healthier choices to customers, the company said.
The announcement came after Singapore-based activist investor 3D Investment Partners Pte. Ltd. criticized the major Japanese beverage company as relying too heavily on profits from its real estate arm while failing to earn enough from its core alcoholic beverage business.
In October, Sapporo Holdings granted a consortium including KKR, formally known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., preferential rights to negotiate a deal for its real estate business, but talks were suspended after aging properties in the portfolio were found to require repairs and safety upgrades.
Sapporo Holdings later also opened negotiations with U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Funds.
Yebisu Garden Place opened near JR Ebisu Station in 1994 at a site where a brewery of Sapporo’s mainstay brand Yebisu Beer once stood. The upscale neighborhood, named Ebisu after the beer, is in a prime location within 2.5 kilometers of JR Shibuya Station.
The Sapporo Factory shopping complex in Hokkaido in northern Japan, which also opened on a former brewery site, will be divested to the entity involving KKR and PAG.
AloJapan.com