Surge in foreign bids for Japanese firms only just beginning, says BofA’s Komori

TOKYO :A surge in foreign takeover bids for Japanese firms is likely to accelerate, according to Bank of America’s co-head of Japan investment banking, Yuta Komori.
The rise in acquisitions has coincided with increasing appetite for growth among Japanese companies and declining resistance to partnering foreign firms, Komori said in a Sept. 3 interview about market trends, not BofA’s business strategy.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The increasing number of takeover bids reflects regulatory effort to improve corporate governance, including new guidance on how executives should respond to bids. It also reflects the rising appeal of Japanese firms kindled by a weak yen and the unwinding of cross-shareholding arrangements.
KEY QUOTES
Bidding “activity is becoming more active regardless of sector. It’s only going to increase from here.”
“Just as there are options to bolster one’s business domestically or to go overseas and strengthen it, there are naturally options to improve corporate value by partnering with foreign companies.”
“The Japanese capital market is the most dynamic market in the world right now.”
CONTEXT
Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard on Aug. 19 said it had approached 7-Eleven convenience store operator Seven & i about a potential takeover, in what would be the largest-ever foreign buyout of a Japanese company.
Other large bids of late include Blackstone’s offer to take private digital comic distributor Infocom and Carlyle’s acquisition of KFC Holdings Japan.
BY THE NUMBERS
Foreign acquisitions of Japanese companies doubled to 902.2 billion yen ($6.20 billion) in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, LSEG data showed.
Seven & i shares have underperformed the benchmark Nikkei gauge over the past decade amid activist investor complaints about the company’s management and asset structure.
The company’s shares jumped by nearly 23 per cent percent on Aug. 19 on news of the Couche-Tard offer.
($1 = 145.4200 yen)