Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, in pursuit of its Japanese expansion mandate, signed various agreements with MJOF Pte. Ltd. to purchase six freehold office properties in Japan for nearly ¥60.93 billion.

The six assets included in the portfolio have a total gross floor area of 1.65 million square feet and total net lettable area of 1.60 million square feet. As of Dec. 31, 2017, the buildings have a weighted average lease expiry of 5.8 years, an occupancy rate of 99.9% and are home to 21 tenants.

Three of the properties are in Tokyo — IXINAL Monzen-nakacho Building, Higashi-nihonbashi 1-chome Building and TS Ikebukuro Building — while SII Makuhari Building and Fujitsu Makuhari Building are in the Chiba prefecture and ABAS Shin-Yokohama Building is in Yokohama.

The Singapore real estate investment trust is planning to finance the acquisition using proceeds from a proposed equity fundraising.

Mapletree Greater China added that subject to the deal's completion, it intends to change its name to Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust.

The seller is a private real estate fund that is an indirect subsidiary of Mapletree Investments Pte. Ltd., which also owns the buyer's manager.

As of March 27, US$1 was equivalent to ¥105.71.