Government of Singapore Investment Corp’s property arm, GIC Real Estate  has formed a joint venture with Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. Incidentally, GIC RE manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio of property in 30 countries, putting it among the world’s 10 biggest real estate investors. Its parent company is GIC which is the vehicle of the Singaporean Government to invest Singapore’s foreign exchange reserves in stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets worldwide.
Some details of the JV as follows:

• It invest up to 150 billion yen (US$1.2bil) in Japanese property. 
• the joint venture would invest in existing retail property and in projects under development in Japan over the next two years.
• It also plans to buy under-performing assets with a view to turning them around.
• The target markets are the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and other major cities
• Sumitomo would be the asset manager for the joint venture and be responsible for sourcing, development and operations. 
   (Reuters 25/5/07)