Resona Holdings Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its Tokyo head office building to Mitsubishi Estate Co. for ¥162 billion in Japan's biggest real estate transaction this year.
The state-controlled bank will make a ¥120 billion profit from the sale, set for April 30, Resona said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Resona joins financial firms including Citigroup Inc. and Shinsei Bank Ltd. in selling property in Tokyo, where office vacancies are near a seven-year low. Resona's third-quarter profit declined 17 percent to ¥75.2 billion on investment losses and declining fees from investment trust sales.
Tokyu REIT Inc., a real estate investment trust affiliated with Tokyu Corp., bought a 27 percent interest in Resona's building for ¥23.3 billion in 2004, valuing the 29-year-old structure at about ¥86 billion at that time, according to the trust's annual securities report. Resona on Tuesday listed the book value at ¥60.2 billion.
Shinsei Bank said earlier this month it agreed to sell its head office building to a Morgan Stanley-operated fund for ¥118 billion. Citigroup sold its Tokyo headquarters to Morgan Stanley for ¥48 billion, three sources said last month.
The government injected about ¥2 trillion in public funds into Resona by acquiring a mix of common stock and preferred securities in 2003, lifting the bank's capital adequacy ratio. The state owns a 49.5 percent stake in the bank.