A consortium led by EQT has raised its tender offer for Japanese price comparison and restaurant review platform operator Kakaku.com to 3,450 yen ($23.3) per share, topping a competing bid as it seeks to secure shareholder support for the take-private deal.
The revised offer, announced on Friday, increases the bid from 3,000 yen per share and exceeds the rival proposal of 3,384 yen per share announced on July 1.
The consortium, comprising EQT’s BPEA Private Equity Fund IX and Japanese technology company Digital Garage, said the higher offer is intended to improve execution certainty and enable a timely completion of the transaction.
EQT said the consortium has already obtained all required regulatory clearances for the deal, contrasting its proposal with the competing bid, which it said is expected to launch no earlier than September and remains subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
The buyout firm said the original 3,000-yen offer reflected Kakaku.com’s intrinsic value and included a premium to the company’s unaffected share price before media reports about a potential transaction emerged. It decided to raise the bid after reviewing developments in the sale process and reaffirming its confidence in the company’s long-term growth prospects.
“Our proposal provides Kakaku.com shareholders with an attractive combination of value, certainty and timing,” Tetsuro Onitsuka, a partner in EQT’s Private Capital Asia team, said in a statement.
EQT said it plans to leverage its experience investing in digital marketplace businesses, including PropertyGuru, idealista and Casa.it, to support Kakaku.com’s platform development and long-term growth alongside Digital Garage and the company’s management.
The revised bid comes as global private equity firms continue to pursue take-private transactions in Japan, where improving corporate governance and shareholder returns have helped fuel deal activity.
EQT closed its BPEA IX fund at $15.6 billion in April, making it the largest private equity fund raised for Asia-Pacific to date, and has recently completed take-private deals involving Japanese companies including Fujitec, CareNet and Mamezo.
Business News Asia
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