Singapore's PCG to reopen fund for luxury Japan ski resort as weak yen beckons

investing.com:

By Mariko Katsumura and Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) — Patience Capital Group, the Singapore-based investor behind a $1.42 billion luxury ski project in northern Japan, is in talks to reopen its fund to new investors eager to get in before tightening by the Bank of Japan.

PCG's initial 35 billion yen ($237 million) fund, announced last year to transform Myoko Kogen in Japan's Niigata prefecture into a winter sports destination at par with Aspen and Whistler, may grow to 60 billion yen as new money from domestic and foreign investors piles in, said PCG founder Ken Chan.

Japan is riding twin booms in investment and inbound visitors, boosted by a weak yen that makes the country a bargain for foreigners. Chan set up PCG in 2019 to benefit from both, investing in accommodation and resort properties.

The BOJ is expected to move as early as next week, beginning a lengthy normalisation from about two decades of easy money policy. That shift, along with possible interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, is likely to drive the yen up from the near three-decade lows it trades at now, Chan said.

«It's clear from a macro perspective, this year is a very important year to put funds into yen assets, because the yen is too cheap right now,» said Chan, who founded PCG after 19 years with Singapore's GIC sovereign wealth fund, where he acted as its Japan head.

«I think in the next few months, you will continue to see investors coming in to take an investment position in this market,» he added.

Chan, who was born in Japan and spent his early childhood there, last year sketched out a plan to turn the Myoko Kogen area into a high-end winter paradise that can attract wealthy, globe-trotting snow fans.

His fund, which caters to institutional