Japan's Unizo rejects bids from local fund, Blackstone (updated)

HIS Co

10/10/2019 12:19

(Adds details)
    TOKYO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Japanese hotel chain Unizo
Holdings  3258.T  said on Thursday it had rejected buyout
proposals from a "locally renowned" fund as well as U.S. private
equity firm Blackstone Group  BX.N , adding to a list of spurned
suitors.
    The rejections follow Unizo's withdrawal of its support for
a once white-knight bid from SoftBank  9984.T -backed Fortress
Investment Group as well as a failed hostile bid from travel
agent H.I.S. Co  9603.T . 
    Previously a relatively obscure hotelier, Unizo is now being
seen as a prominent battleground amid Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe's push for greater transparency and reform because of its
ways of handling buyout offers from various suitors.
    Unizo has frustrated investors by giving the impression that
it had wooed, and then rejected, the bid from Fortress which it
once welcomed but later back-tracked. 
    On Wednesday, Unizo's top shareholder, Elliot Management,
ended weeks of public silence to ask Unizo's board to address
its concerns about disclosure.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N26U1X3
    The latest failed suitor was a well-known fund in Japan,
which Unizo did not name. The fund offered to buy the company at
between 4,500 yen and 5,000 yen a share. That compared with its
closing price of 4,540 yen on Thursday.
    Unizo said it had rejected the offer because the fund was
not able to prepare the money needed for the proposed buyout.
Also the fund asked Unizo to secure 90 billion yen in a bank
account as part of the deal financing. 
    Unizo also identified Blackstone as the suitor it rejected
in September, when it disclosed a bid from a "top global fund".
Blackstone resubmitted its bid this week but was rejected again,
Unizo said.
    

 (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Deepa Babington and
David Evans)
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