HONG KONG—J.P. Morgan Asset Management has acquired Aviva's Asia Pacific real estate platform, a direct real estate investment management platform operating in Australia, Japan and Singapore. The announcement was made Wednesday by both firms. With the transaction, J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets adds deep capabilities in these three markets to its existing presence in India and Greater China.

Through the acquisition, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which has been investing in Asia property since 2006 and manages $82 billion in property, infrastructure and maritime assets globally, has taken on the investment management of existing Asia Pacific real estate funds and portfolios spanning core to value-added investments. Not impacted by the transaction are Aviva Investors' multi-manager property strategies in the region.

"Growing in Asia Pacific has been a strategic imperative for us as a global real assets solutions provider," said Joe Azelby, head of J.P. Morgan's Global Real Assets division.  "With this acquisition, we have expanded our real estate investment capabilities, across the full risk spectrum from core to opportunistic strategies, to help our clients increase their allocations to dynamic growth markets in Asia Pacific."

J.P. Morgan Asset Management's 400-strong Global Real Assets team will be bolstered by the addition of the current Aviva Asia Pacific real estate team. The combined Asia team comprises nearly 50 real estate professionals operating from five offices throughout Asia Pacific – Hong Kong, Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney.  A sixth office in the region, in Tokyo, is scheduled to open in early 2015.

"Asia Pacific presents an enormous investment opportunity for our clients.  We have accelerated the expansion of our geographic footprint into key real estate markets and added high quality personnel on the ground with extensive market expertise and deep local relationships," said David Chen, locally based head of Asia Pacific for J.P. Morgan .  "With today's announcement, J.P. Morgan is even better able to provide comprehensive pan-Asian property solutions."

Euan Munro, chiefexecutive at Aviva Investors added: "As we continue our strategy of simplifying our business and moving towards an integrated operating model and organisational structure, we selected J.P. Morgan to help ensure stability and continuity for the investors in our Asia Pacific real estate strategies."