< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team
Tomohiro Araki
Nomura
First-place appearances: 2
Total appearances: 7
Team debut: 2010
It’s five years at No. 2 for Nomura’s Tomohiro Araki, whom one portfolio manager hails as “forthright and honest about his opinions, offering balanced and useful thoughts.” Following 35 Japanese real estate investment trusts, five more than a year ago, the analyst expects to continue to increase coverage. In early September, after the domestic sector had shed 11.9 percent of its value during the preceding month, which was largely in line with Japan’s broad market decline over the period, he predicted a rally. The investment community was overreacting to concerns about an interest rate hike in the U.S., Araki reasoned, and the J-REITs should be buoyed by rents and occupancy rates that remained high. Sure enough, through the middle of last month, the group jumped 26.2 percent, outpacing domestic shares overall by 35.3 percentage points. Leading the charge going forward will be hotel and office REITs, he predicts, for their safe, reliable and high dividend yields. Among the 40-year-old researcher’s favorite names on this theme is Activia Properties, a Tokyo-headquartered metropolitan commercial REIT whose stock he assigns a year-end target price of ¥622,000. It was trading at ¥582,000 in mid-March. The 40-year-old researcher “always makes himself available for constructive conversations,” observes another client.
