Tokyo Firm Buys Stake in Kennedy Wilson

In a sign that Japanese capital might start to return to American real estate markets, Beverly Hills real estate investment company Kennedy Wilson Inc. said it sold a 20% interest in its apartment management division to Kenedix, a Tokyo-based real estate company.

The interest was sold for $9 million, giving the division that manages 5,000 units in California a valuation of $45 million. The companies also expect to jointly buy $400 million of U.S. apartment properties this year.

Japanese investors have mostly been sellers since the U.S. real estate market peak of the early 1990s.

-- Roger Vincent