Murakami-backed fund extends buyout tender period for Japan's Kosaido

Kosaido Holdings

08/05/2019 11:23

TOKYO, May 8 (Reuters) - A fund backed by veteran Japanese
activist shareholder Yoshiaki Murakami extended the offer period
for a buyout tender of Japanese printing firm Kosaido Co
 7868.T  by nearly two weeks, amid tensions between the fund and
the company over the bid.
    Tokyo-based Kosaido emerged earlier this year as the
unlikely battleground between Murakami and U.S. private
equity giant Bain Capital. Last month, a Bain-backed management
buyout foundered after it failed to get enough support from
shareholders at a revised 700 yen ($6.37) a share. 
    Murakami's Minami Aoyama Fudosan fund has offered 750
yen a share. On Wednesday both the fund and Kosaido said the 
offer had been extended to May 22 from May 10.
    Kosaido has said it would remain neutral over the bid,
because it was not able to determine whether value would be
boosted by Murakami's fund. But the company has also said there
was a possbility that the bid could damage its corporate value.
    Minami Aoyama Fudosan said in a statement that argument had
no foundation. The company has also said it could not oppose to
the bid because offer price is higher than Bain's.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21F2K1
    The fund has argued that Kosaido has been undervalued by the
market for too long. The 70-year-old company prints newspapers
and advertisements. But the key to the deal may be its 61
percent stake in a funeral hall and crematorium business, Tokyo
Hakuzen. 
    Despite Tokyo's massive population and the rapid ageing of
Japanese society, funeral companies have a hard time building
new crematoriums given opposition from local communities. That
means existing facilities tend to be lucrative.


($1 = 109.9700 yen)

 (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by David Dolan and Rashmi
Aich)
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