Japanese gaming company Sega Sammy will acquire Stakelogic B.V. for a rumoured $141m.  Headquartered in the Netherlands, Stakelogic has over 550 employees in 7 offices covering over 20 markets worldwide.

Stakelogic has expertise in developing iGaming content and has Game Certifications across 17 territories, developing slot games, live table games and hybrid games which allow players to play roulette, blackjack, baccarat and live game shows online.

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Hitachi has announced a further divestment of its non core businesses with the sale of its 40% stake in the joint venture it has with US company Johnson Controls to Bosch. Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning has multiple operations in the EMEA region, including in Spain, UK, Bulgaria, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Its commercial air conditioning business in Japan will be folded into Hitachi’s home appliance business. The home air conditioning production plant in Tochigi, Japan, will be transferred to Bosch.

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Japanese automotive parts supplier Yazaki has acquired the German mould maker Junker Halverscheid group via its Yazaki EMEA N.V. subsidiary.

The family-owned company JuHa, is a manufacturer of tools and moulds for plastics processing as well as a producer of plastic parts for the automotive industry. It has around 200 employees in Lüdenscheid and has been a supplier to Yazaki EMEA for decades.

Yazaki is also a family owned, privately held company, and is the third largest Japanese employer in the EMEA region, with over 45,000 employees. It has largely grown organically overseas rather than through acquisition.

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Tokyo-listed seafood company Kyokuyo has bought a majority interest in Northseafood Holland as part of its strategy to establish an overseas processing presence.

Its Kyokuyo Europe subsidiary, also Netherlands based, will acquire a majority stake in NSF Holding, the parent company of NS Holland.

Kyokuyo also took a majority stake in Turkey’s Kocaman Fisheries Export and Import Trade in January.

There have been quite a few acquisitions by Japanese companies of European seafood processors in recent years –  for example Maruha Nichiro, Nippon Suisan and Marubeni.

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Sumitomo Electric will acquire 90% of the shares of Südkabel, a 120 year old cable manufacturer  Mannheim, in order to fully localize the production and construction of high voltage direct current cable systems in Germany. The acquisition process is currently expected to be completed as of October 1st this year, subject to regulatory approvals.

Two major HVDC cable projects, Korridor B V49 and part of the Rhein-Main-Link project, with a total project value of more than EUR 3 billion, have been awarded to Sumitomo Electric, which will be anchor projects to pave the way for a climate neutral energy system in Germany.

SEI also announced in May the construction of a high-voltage submarine cable factory in the UK.

Sumitomo Electric Industries is the largest Japanese employer in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, employing 75,000 people, largely due to its wire harness manufacturing for the automotive sector. It acquired the British company Lucas in 1990, Italian Cabind Automotive in 2001 and Volkswagen Bordnetze GmbH in 2006. Südkabel used to be part of ABB, and employs around 300 people. This new acquisition shows a diversification away from the automotive into the energy sector – a trend common across many Japanese companies with operations in the region – a similar much larger scale acquisition being Hitachi’s acquisition of ABB’s power grid business.

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Mitsubishi Materials is to acquire Germany tungsten powder producer H.C. Starck Holdings from its current owner, Vietnamese conglomerate Masan for $134m. Tungsten is used in carbide tools for making auto engine and aircraft components and is already a product line for Mitsubishi Materials in the USA and China. It will become one of the largest suppliers globally with this acquisition.

H.C. Starck employs 540 people at three production sites in Germany, Canada and China plus sales offices in the U.S. and Japan. MMC has several hundred employees in Europe in a range of companies including previous acquisitions such as Luvata.

Another subsidiary of H.C. Starck, in the ceramics sector, was acquired by Kyocera in 2019.

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Asahi Kasei has made a cash offer to acquire Sweden’s Calliditas Therapeutics in a deal worth 11.16 billion Swedish crowns ($1.06 billion). Calliditas has full FDA approval for its primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) treatment Tarpeyo and is listed on Nasdaq in New York and Stockholm.

Asahi Kasei already owns several companies in Europe, employing around 650 people, stemming from various acquisitions made since 2012, but is mainly known for chemicals related building materials such as insulation, coating and rubber. It states that this acquisition is to establish a presence in Europe (presumably in pharmaceuticals), initially focused on R&D; and to expand the scope of its in-licensing and new drug development opportunities.

Calliditas has around 200 employees with offices in Sweden, France, US and Switzerland.

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