Shinsei Bank Ltd., the Japanese lender partly owned by J. Christopher Flowers, plans to set up a health care real estate investment trust to capture growth in one of the world's fastest-aging nations.
The bank seeks to start the REIT with about ¥100 billion in two years, said Takashi Fujimura, general manager of the health care finance division at Shinsei. The bank may be able to list a REIT as early as 2014, once the government establishes guidelines to allow the REIT listings, he said.
One in every four people in Japan will be older than 65 years in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank plans to provide lending for nursing homes and senior housing in Japan to match the rising demand as it expects the nation's health care market to double in size to ¥6 trillion in five years, said Fujimura.