Nomura’s 6 Stocks Expected to Benefit from Tokyo’s Hosting of 2020 Olympic Summer Games (VIDEOS)
Sports experts believe the choice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to select Tokyo as hosts of the 2020 Summer Games in a good one. They base their agreement on Japan's record in hosting international sporting events and the capital city's first-class transportation system, plus a well-regulated hotel sector that can accommodate athletes and visitors without overcharging them.
Another advantage offered by Tokyo is that it has previously hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1964, reducing the cost of spending for facilities and infrastructure.
With an estimated $10 billion bill, the Tokyo cost would be below the amount spent by London for the 2012 games and Beijing for the 2008 Olympiad.
For the 1964 games, Tokyo build a network of highways around the capital city and its first Shinkansen high-speed rail lines. It spent an equivalent amount of 3.6 per cent of Japan's gross national product that year, a research note from Japanese securities firm Nomura said.
For the coming 2020 games, Tokyo would spend only about 0.3 per cent of its 2012 gross domestic product, spread over eight years from 2013 to 2020. The bulk of the new spending would be on the Olympic Village, considered the city's largest housing project in four decades.
For investors wanting to benefit from Tokyo's hosting of the Summer Games, Nomura lists 6 companies whose share prices are likely to enjoy a boost because of the international sporting event. These are:
- Taisei (FUK: JP 3359) - The construction company which has the highest chance to win the contact to build the 80,000-seat main stadium.
- Taiheiyo Cement (TYO: JP 5233) - To benefit from the expected cement demand of 3 million tonnes in the years 2016-19 for the construction of the Olympics facilities.
- East Japan Railway (TYO: JP 9020) - Plans to redevelop the Shinagawa neighbourhood, which will offer a transport hub convenient to passengers arriving in Tokyo's two airports and nearby large hotels.
- Mitsui Fudosan (TYO: JP 8801) - A property company that has extensive holdings in the Tokyo areas, including buildings with four- and five-star hotels.
- Xebio (TYO: JP 8281) - Operator of sporting goods and golf stores. Golf is being included as an Olympic sport beginning 2016.
- Sohgo Security Services (TYO: JP 2331) - Would likely enjoy 5-billion yen in sales due to higher demand for staffed security services.
Nomura said all these six stocks have risen sharply in 2013, with Taisei, Taiheiyo and Sohgo trading at almost double their price as of early April.
Bloomberg reported that an index created by Okasan Securities of 70 Japanese Olympics-related stocks was up 45 per cent in 2013 through Friday, higher than the 34 per cent climb for the benchmark Topix index.
The 80,000-seater stadium will be used ahead of the Olympics in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. The new stadium will be built by Zaha Hadid Architects, a British firm that won the bid in November 2012.
Ms Hadid was the designer of the Aquatics center in London used for the 2012 Games and won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. The Iraq-born architect is the first female to win the prize due to its environmental efficiency and design that complemented Tokyo's crowded landscape with fluidity.
The old national stadium built for the 1964 games will be demolished and construction for the new stadium will start in late 2015.