Yumeshin Holdings Co. said Saturday it undershot its goal of acquiring a majority stake in Japan Engineering Consultants Co. in a hostile takeover bid that ended the day before.
In releasing the results of its 24-day public tender offer, Yumeshin, a construction engineering firm, said 1,399,000 shares were offered for purchase against its target of 17,455,000 shares.
Yumeshin, which increased its stake in Japan Engineering to 10.59 percent from 6.83 percent as a result of its tender offer, is expected to propose an alliance with Japan Engineering and offer to send directors to the firm in accordance with the number of shares it holds.
The bid failed partly because Eight Consultants Co. emerged as a "white knight" to offer a friendly acquisition of Japan Engineering, market sources said.
The Yumeshin offer might also have been unfavorable for Japan Engineering shareholders as Japan Engineering's share price remained above the Yumeshin-offered acquisition price during the public tender offer period that began July 20, they said.
On the Jasdaq Securities Exchange on Friday, Japan Engineering closed at 218 yen compared with the Yumeshin-offered price of 110 yen.
Japan Engineering implemented a 5-for-1 stock split to combat Yumeshin's hostile takeover bid. In response to the step, Yumeshin quintupled the number of its targeted Japan Engineering shares.
On Tuesday, Eight Consultants launched a friendly takeover bid for Japan Engineering at a price of 118 yen per share.
Japan Engineering is to hold its general shareholders' meeting in late September. Yumeshin officials said the firm will vote against the issue of share warrants that Japan Engineering had decided to implement to counter the hostile takeover bid.