New City Residence Investment Corporation Shareholders’ Blog Rockets to #11
Nearly 5,000 Shareholders Rally in Support via Blog & Thousands More Comment on BBS Channel 2
8,689 Individual Investors Relying on Civil Rehabilitation Court, Lawyers, Banks, and Financial Advisor for Protection
NCRI, the First JREIT to File for Civil Rehabilitation, Awaits Court’s Decision that Holds in Balance 8,689 Small Investors’ Savings
TOKYO, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Tobias Josef Brown, Managing Director of UCL Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong), who is among the largest shareholders of New City Residence Investment Corporation (TSE: 8965; NCRI) holding about 8.3% of its stock, today announced that the New City Residence Shareholders’ Blog ( http://ameblo.jp/ncri/ )now ranks #11 out of 2,099 blogs about Economics / Politics on Japan’s leading Blog platform Ameblo -- equivalent to the top 99.48 percentile.
The objective of the NCRI Shareholders Group is to protect the rights of all NCRI unit holders, including NCRI’s 8,698 individual investors, who account for 96.01% of all unit holders. According to today’s data, in the 21 days since launching on November 13, 2008, the New City Residence Shareholders’ Blog has recorded fully 13,865 Unique Page Views by some 4,730 individuals. In addition, over 1,000 comments on this topic have reportedly been posted on leading Japanese BBS, Channel 2.
According to Tobias Josef Brown, "I am very moved by the strong support shown by NCRI individual investors, most of whom sought a conservative investment alternative to their Japan National Pension Plans, but who now face sleepless nights over their NCRI holdings, which by all reasonable measures are still valuable. Most of NCRI’s many valuable real estate properties are in central Tokyo, were built about 4 years ago, and have high occupancy rates and stable rents, which is reflected in highly unusual fact that NCRI shareholders’ equity was valued at fully JPY 88.2 billion when it applied for Civil Rehabilitation."
Mr. Brown continued, "The mobilization of the NCRI Shareholders Group demonstrates the ability of the Internet to empower individual shareholders who have difficulty making their voices heard in the NCRI Civil Rehabilitation Court Proceedings. The banks that have lent to NCRI are already well protected via well secured loans on sound real estate assets, which, if sold in a sweetheart deal or at fire sale prices, would dramatically worsen economic conditions in Japan."
"I speak for well over 50% of all NCRI unit holders as we call upon Nikko Citigroup Limited (NCRI’s financial advisor), the Japanese Civil Rehabilitation Court, Civil Rehabilitation Proctor Attorney, creditor banks, and other interested parties, all of whom share an obligation to select a Civil Rehabilitation Plan that fairly, transparently, and logically reflects the underlying value of NCRI."
Mr. Brown concluded by saying, "Various analysts estimate that a fair discount of, say, 20% ought to be applied to NCRI, as opposed to the outrageous discount of 96.3% to book value that applied upon the NCRI’s delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. By this logic, given a capitalization rate of, say, 7%, the true value of NCRI’s units can be fairly calculated in the JPY 150,000 - 200,000 range. Anything less will lead to a death spiral in all J REITs equity values and credit ratings, which would exacerbate the credit crunch in Japanese real estate, deflate Japanese real prices further, and, ironically, thereby destroy the equity of lending bank asset values, most of which are backed by real estate. We understand that the governance covenants of certain of NCRI’s institutional investors are such that they would be compelled to take legal action in the case of an unfair Civil Rehabilitation Plan."
Profile: Tobias Josef Brown, Managing Director of UCL Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong) has a proven investment track record and had previously worked for 15 years as Chief Investment Officer for the global investment operations of the late Sir James Goldsmith, and was formerly Chairman of the Noble Group (SGX: NOBL), a global supply chain manager of agricultural, metals, minerals and ores, and energy products. As a contrarian investor, Mr. Brown has been involved in major MBO, M&A, and other strategic investments throughout the Asian Pacific region, and is committed to the principles of good corporate governance.
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