AT the shareholder meeting of Japan Retail Fund Investment Corporation ("JRF") held on January 2010, I was decided to appoint an Executive Director of JRF. I have been chosen for this position and would like to use this opportunity to request your continued support of JRF.
JRF has been a leader in the industry as the pioneering retail J-REIT since listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 2002. We have achieved steady growth in all spheres of our operations - revenues, profits and assets. This has been punctuated by achieving the milestone of 400 billion yen in assets at the end of September 2006, six months ahead of our original target of March 2007. In the end of February 2010 period we were able to expend to a size where we had 50 properties and 578.8 billion yen in assets.
JRF completed the merger with LaSalle Japan REIT Inc.（"LJR"） on March 1, 2010, and own LJR's 21 properties with a total appraisal value about 88 billion yen.
At JRF, we plan to continue on our path of steady external growth by carefully selecting attractive investment properties, in close cooperation with Mitsubishi Corp.-UBS Realty. Moreover, we will continue to enhance the internal growth of our portfolio by striving to acquire properties with increasing customers and sales revenues.
On a personal note, I am presently lecturing on finance and investment at Tokyo University of Technology. Prior to this, I worked with Japan's major financial institutions, consulting with many corporations and investors about their securities investments as well as global financial activities including property development. I am confident that my experience in finance and capital markets will enable me to add value to JRF. I will diligently apply these skills to guide JRF toward further success, while also continuing our emphasis on delivering transparency and legal compliance at a global standard.
Once again, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your continued support of JRF.
Yorishige Kondo
President and Executive Director, Japan Retail Fund Investment Corporation
