Seibu Holdings (TYO: 9024) is looking to sell some of its most well-known hotel and leisure facilities according to the Nikkei Asia.

Proposals are sought from investment funds by Seibu with the target of completing sales by April 2022.  The target sales price is over 100 billion yen.

Seibu Holdings owns marquee real estate throughout Japan but is expected to only sell a portion of the portfolio.  Roughly 40 properties are on offer, within that are 10 hotel properties including The Prince Park Tower Tokyo, Sapporo Prince Hotel and Lake Biwa Otsu Prince Hotel with the remaining real estate being golf courses and ski operations.  For the time being, the Shinagawa Prince Hotel and Karuizawa Prince Hotel are to be left off the table.

Seibu Holdings follows in the footsteps of fellow railway operators in offloading their properties to shore up balance sheets negatively hit due to Covid-19.  In March of 2021, Kintetsu Group Holdings announced the sale of 8 hotels to Blackstone for roughly 60 billion yen and according to Nikkei Asia, varying elements of Japan Railway is investigating potential earnings from sales of commercial facilities in order to put funds towards station gentrification.

Investment funds look at Japan’s hotel industry as ripe pickings in anticipation for the so-called “after corona” market.  In 2019, Japan welcomed over 31 million tourists which dropped to just over 4 million in 2020.  For funds already in Japan with access to ultra-low domestic financing, hospitality properties have been in high demand throughout the pandemic.

Seibu Holdings also joins the ranks of Dentsu Holdings and Avex Group in looking to proceeds from property sales to boost capital in order to refocus on core business operations.