25
Jun
Buyouts: Battle royale
Take-private transactions have emerged as a significant source of large-cap buyout deal flow in Japan, alongside corporate carve-outs. Emboldened by the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s efforts to improve market efficiency and activist investors targeting corporate weakness, private equity investors are more willing to pursue public companies, almost to the point of hostility. Bandwidth – in terms of having the talent to execute deals and perhaps the debt to finance them – appears to be the major obstacle.
What is the split between carve-outs and take-privates in deal pipelines?
Do regulators need to do anything more to facilitate buyouts?
How is the value-creation playbook evolving for large-cap deals?
What are GPs doing to attract, retain, and develop talent?
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SpeakersSoichi Sam Takata Executive Expert, Private Equity Tokio Marine Asset Management
Atsushi Akaike Managing Partner, Co-Head of Japan CVC Capital Partners
Tetsu Onitsuka Partner EQT Partners
Atsuhiko Sakamoto Head of Private Equity for Japan Blackstone
Eiji Yatagawa Partner, Private Equity KKR
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Soichi Sam Takata has been with Tokio Marine Asset Management since the creation of the private equity investment team in 2002. Before that, Mr Takata was at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance (Tokio Marine) working in their alternative investment team from 1997 to 1998, and again from 2001 onwards, managing a global portfolio of private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure funds, CDOs/CLOs and other alternative assets.
Mr. Takata spent three years at Tokio Marine Capital, Tokio Marine's private equity investment arm, working on management buyout and development capital transactions in Japan. During this period, he also spent time at private equity houses in the US and the UK. Prior to that, he spent over two years on secondment to the Export-Import Bank of Japan (now the Japan Bank for International Cooperation) working on project finance transactions around the world.
Mr Takata began his career in the international investment department of Tokio Marine overseeing an international portfolio of managed assets. He has a BA in economics from Harvard College.
Managing Partner, Co-Head of Japan, joined CVC in 2015. Atsushi is based in Tokyo and leads our private equity activities in Japan. He is a member of the Asia Private Equity Board and the Asia Executive Committee, a sub-committee of the APEB that oversees and drives our investment activity in the region. Prior to joining CVC, he spent over eleven years at Advantage Partners as a Senior Partner, he led Management and Leveraged BuyOut transactions. Prior to this, he worked for McKinsey & Co., Tokyo, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Atsushi holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Colorado School of Mines, a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from The University of Tokyo.
Tetsu Onitsuka joined EQT Partners in October 2021 and is a partner in the BPEA EQT team. Prior to joining EQT, Tetsu was a founding member and Managing Director of Japan Post Investment Corporation, which managed approximately USD 1 billion in private equity funds. Prior to Japan Post Investment, he worked at TPG Capital for over ten years, ultimately running TPG’s Japan business. He also previously worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. Tetsu received a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from Harvard College, and a Master of Business Administration with High Distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School.
Atsuhiko Sakamoto is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group and is based in Tokyo, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Private Equity group's investment activities in Japan. Since joining Blackstone in 2018, Mr. Sakamoto has led all of the firm's private equity investments in Japan including Ayumi, Alinamin, Sony Payment Service, Infocom, I'rom and CMIC.
Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Sakamoto was a Managing Director at Bain Capital where he focused on private equity investments in Japan.
Mr. Sakamoto received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yale University.
Eiji Yatagawa (Tokyo) joined KKR in 2006 and is a Partner and Head of Japan Private Equity. He is on the Board of Directors of PHC Holdings (formerly Panasonic Healthcare), Koki Holdings (formerly Hitachi Koki), Seiyu, dataX (formerly From Scratch), Yayoi, and LOGISTEED (formerly Hitachi Transport System). Mr. Yatagawa was also previously involved with KKR’s investments in Unisteel (Singapore), Intelligence, AlphaTheta (formerly Pioneer DJ), Transphorm (USA), Marelli Holdings (formerly Calsonic Kansei), Kokusai Electric (formerly Hitachi Kokusai Electric), and NETSTARS. From 2010 to 2012, he worked in KKR's Hong Kong office. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Yatagawa was with Goldman Sachs & Co.'s investment banking team, based in New York and Tokyo, where he focused on the telecommunications, media, and technology sector and was involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions as well as financing projects. He holds a B.S. and an M.S. from the University of Tokyo.