Developer and asset management firm CIM Group is set to land an investment of roughly half a billion dollars from a Japanese corporation.

Mitsui & Co. Ltd., based in Tokyo, will invest between $450 million and $550 million for a 20 percent stake in CIM and in real estate investment funds it manages, the two firms said in statements released on Monday. 

A spokesman for CIM declined to comment, and Mitsui did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CIM, headquartered in Mid-Wilshire, has more than $19 billion of assets under management, according to the company. Mitsui’s investments, through Sabre Investments, a special purpose entity, are set to begin before the end of March and continue for several years, according to a document posted on Mitsui’s website.

Mitsui, which operates in a range of industries with a market cap of about $26 billion in U.S. dollars, said it aimed to grow its investments in the United States.

“Investing in CIM is consistent with our strategic plan to expand Mitsui’s real-asset management business to the U.S.,” said Tatsuo Yasunaga, Mitsui’s president, in a statement released by CIM.

Mitsui added that the U.S. is an attractive target for real estate investments compared with other global markets as Japanese investors look for higher returns abroad.

“In Japan, due to poor performance caused by lasting low interest rates, Japanese investors’ capital is expected to flow increasingly into overseas real estate and infrastructure investments,” the company said in its statement.

As part of the partnership, Mitsui will help CIM target its funds to other Japanese investors through Mitsui’s Japan Alternative Investment Co. Ltd. The goal is to raise several hundred billions of yen over “the coming years,” according to the statement.