Investment in luxury Japanese ski project to be supercharged

Last February, db reported unprecedented opportunities for drinks brands in Japan due to vast investments being made in the country’s ski scene. These opportunities are about to get even bigger, reports Sarah Neish.

This time last year, the drinks business wrote about the enormous cash injection Japan’s ski industry was about to get, and how drinks brands could get in on the action by locking in listings at Japanese après ski hotspots.

Now Patience Capital Group, the Singapore-based investor behind a US$1.42 billion luxury ski project in north Japan, designed to put the area on a par with Canadian ski regions Aspen and Whistler, is in talks to open up its fund to new investors. Why now? The Bank of Japan is expected to tighten its belt by several notches as early as this week as the value of the yen starts to rise after almost 30 years in decline.

The yen hit a one-month high against the dollar on Thursday, and forecasts by Bloomberg indicate the yen will strengthen to ¥135:US$1 by the end of 2024.

A move to invite new investors could double the financial backing behind the lucrative ski venture, with Patience’s initial investment of 35 billion yen (US$237 million) potentially set to grow to 60 billion yen as cash from international investors pours in.

“It’s clear from a macro perspective that this year is a very important year to put funds into yen assets, because the yen is too cheap right now,” Patience founder Ken Chan told Reuters.

So far Chan has bought 350 hectares of land in Myoko Kogen to develop his winter ski paradise, and has revealed he’s actively looking to buy up more ski sites in the area. The cold winds blowing in from the Sea of Japan give Myoko some of the world’s deepest snows, making it ideal for winter sports.

According to Chan, there is so much land there to be developed in the area that the final investment sum could reach as much as 210 billion yen and “absolutely beyond that figure”.

The first of two luxury hotels is expected to open in 2028.

There is no doubt that a vast après ski and hospitality trade will spring up in Myoko in the coming years, and with it ample opportunities for drinks brands, whether they be beer, wine or spirits.

db will watch with interest to see whether any of the global drinks giants (Diageo, Pernod Ricard, AB InBev, Kweichow Moutai, Asahi Group Holdings, Moët Hennessy etc) will take up the call and invest in the project from the ground up. Owning branded bars in the region and tying up exclusivity here could help to plump up earnings in Asia Pacific.