M&A

Japan’s Wacoal acquires UK’s Bravissimo

Japanese women’s underwear maker Wacoal Holdings will acquire UK headquartered Bravissimo Group for £45.7 ($61.3 million). Bravissimo is a retailer specialising in larger sizes, with both stores and an e-commerce side. It  is mainly focused on the UK market, employing 458 people.

Wacoal acquired British lingerie manufacturer Eveden in 2012 which manufactures brands such as Fantasie and Freya, employing around 350 people in the UK and another 75 or so in France. It also has operations in New York, Australia and the Netherlands.

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UK second largest recipient of Japanese overseas M&A deals – but far behind USA

We were surprised to see that the UK was second only to the USA as the location  for Japanese overseas M&A deals in 2023, according to Recof,  as the number and scale of deals we were aware of in the UK seemed to have died down considerably over the past 10 years. Then we looked more closely and realised that of the 660 overseas acquisitions Recof has recorded, 220 were in the USA, and only a fifth of that (44) in the UK. The third and fourth ranked countries were Singapore and India – so it was not a case that acquisitions were shifting to continental Europe either.

We have been aware of 16 acquisitions in the UK in 2023, mostly by the larger Japanese companies – logistics and food related acquisitions have been a particular focus. So it seems likely the other acquisitions were made by smaller Japanese companies. One such did cross our radar recently – Japanese entertainment company GENDA acquired Lemonade by Lemonica – another Japanese company, thereby acquiring Lemonade Lemonica UK. Lemonade Lemonica was, as you might imagine from the name, a drinks company. The UK operation was started in 2021 under the name Pino Pino Zaurus and has only 1 employee.  GENDA have now established GENDA Europe, in the UK, to support the growth of Lemonade Lemonica, and because “the UK is one of the best places for Japanese companies to build their management base in terms of business environment and systems.”  GENDA has been rolling up many Japanese entertainment related companies, so perhaps further acquisitions are to come, impacting Europe.

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Sega Sammy to acquire Dutch online gaming company Stakelogic

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 to sell stake in US air conditioning company Johnson Controls to Bosch

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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Yazaki acquires German JuHa Group

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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Kyokuyo acquires stakes in European seafood companies

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 Industries to acquire majority of Germany’s Südkabel

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 to acquire German tungsten powder producer H.C. Starck

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 to acquire Swedish drugmaker Calliditas

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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