Investing Career
Freeze began his investment career at Nikko Securities in 1988, just before Japan’s bubble burst, and worked at two other financial firms before setting up Honolulu-based Prospect Asset Management in 1994.
In 2002, the company became the first foreign firm to receive a Japanese REIT license, with the trust listing in 2005. In 2009, Prospect’s assets plunged to as low as $150 million from a peak of more than $2 billion two years earlier in what Freeze has described as “a near-death experience.” The Prospect Japan Fund has seen a 53 percent increase in net asset value over the five years through 2015, he said.
Freeze invested in Gro-bels Co. in 2010, helping spur a turnaround in the Japanese developer’s share price. By 2014 Gro-bels had merged with Prospect Co., the company that owned Freeze’s fund management and real-estate development businesses, and he became president of the combined entity. Prospect, which is listed in Tokyo, has committed to 20 billion yen of solar-power development projects, he says.
Freeze says his stint as a missionary was as much about discovering himself as converting people to Mormonism, and one thing he learned was patience. These days, he says he’s not trying to push his views on Japanese people, but wants to use his experience to help. If he doesn’t, he says, his decades of investing in Japan will have been wasted.
“If nobody tries to make a difference, nobody makes a stance and tries to invest, what is the future of Japan?” Freeze said. “This is not about a pay check.”