Bain launches $79m bid for Japanese mushroom producer
Bain Capital has launched a takeover bid for Tokyo-listed Yukiguni Maitake, a troubled Japanese mushroom producer, for as much JPY9.5 billion ($79.1 million).
According to a release, Bain is offering JPY245 per share - an 18% premium over the company’s closing price on Friday - in the hope of gaining a least a majority stake in the business, if not all. Yukiguni (which means “snow country”) was established in 1983 after it developed an innovative method for the mass production of ram’s head mushroom (maitake).
However, the company’s finances have suffered in recent year amid stiff competition, with its net profit from nine months ended in December stumbling to just JPY258 million, a 51% decline from the same period a year ago.
The firm has also been in the grip of a management dispute since June of last year, after major shareholders - including founder Yoshinobu Odaira and his family who hold a 64% stake - objected to a personnel proposal from the company’s management.
Local media reports has suggest that several of the company’s lenders are keen to accept the offer as means of reducing undue influence of the founding family as the company struggles to meet loan repayments. Chief among the company’s creditors are Daishi Bank and Mizuho Bank who are providing loans collateralized by the company's shares to the founding family.
News of this latest offer comes about a week after Bain announced it had agreed to buy Japanese hotel and spa operator Ooedo-Onsen Holdings for JPY50 billion ($421 million), including debt.
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