Japan wanted change in its corporate sector. It got it — for better or worse.
A decade on from the introduction of the country’s first Corporate Governance Code, there’s so much M&A activity in Tokyo these days that it’s tough to even keep track. From private equity to activist investors to consolidation among companies fearful they’ll be targeted next, no acquisition seems beyond the pale.
Consider just a handful of examples in recent weeks: A foreign company is making an exceptional unsolicited bid for Shibaura Electronics. Having seen off the advances of billionaire Shigenobu Nagamori’s Nidec, Makino Milling Machine is selling itself to PE firm MBK Partners. Activists have scooped up stakes in everything from insurer T&D Holdings to tablet maker Wacom and Final Fantasy creator Square Enix Holdings. The communications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone is buying out its artificial intelligence unit NTT Data Group in a ¥2.37 trillion ($16.3 billion) deal, while its mobile unit Docomo is acquiring online bank SBI Sumishin Net Bank — which only went public in March.
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