Bain Capital is increasing its offer for Japanese information technology company Fuji Soft Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said, prolonging a rare bidding war with KKR & Co. in the country’s booming buyout market.
The Boston-based investment firm plans to pay ¥9,600 a share for Fuji Soft, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. That’s 1.6% higher than KKR’s offer of ¥9,451 and values the company at around ¥647 billion .
The development comes less than two weeks before KKR’s tender offer for Fuji Soft is set to end on Dec. 19, and it’s not clear how Bain’s last-minute bid would impact the transaction. Any rival offer would likely need cooperation from KKR, which has already secured more than one-third of shares in Fuji Soft following an earlier tender offer that was accepted by investors 3D Investment Partners and Farallon Capital Management.
A representative for Bain didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Fuji Soft declined to comment.
Shares of Fuji Soft rose as much as 2.7% to ¥9,785 after the Nikkei reported Bain’s increased offer earlier Wednesday. The stock has jumped more than 63% this year. Citigroup Inc. analysts last month set a target price of ¥10,000 for the Yokohama-based company.
Bain’s move underscores how fast the private equity landscape is changing in Japan, as a weaker yen and regulators’ promotion of corporate governance boost opportunities to buy up high-quality Japanese businesses at cheap valuations. Reforms have made companies more receptive to change — whether by going private or selling off non-core businesses — attracting interest from global private equity giants.
The Fuji Soft saga started in August, when KKR offered almost $4 billion to take the company private. Weeks later, Bain announced a rival public bid that was 7% higher. The deal appeared to be in limbo until late November, when KKR raised its offer price to 1 yen per share higher than Bain’s, winning the support of Fuji Soft’s board and the rejection of Bain’s first rival bid.
With assistance from Takako Taniguchi.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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