Former Bain executives target $500m Japan fund

Japan Post Bank is participating as an anchor investor, according to sources familiar with the situation. NIC’s momentum comes at the tail-end of a 12-month period in which most of Japan’s middle-market private equity firms have raised capital. Domestic LPs, ranging from Japan Post Bank to assorted regional banks, have played a prominent role in these fundraising efforts.

Spin-outs from global and regional private equity firms are relatively rare in Japan and few, if any, have been led by mid-level executives. When NSSK was formed by members of the TPG Capital Japan team in 2014, they followed Jun Tsusaka, a partner and the firm’s country head. NSSK has gone on to raise two funds, the second closing at $530 million last October.

NIC’s founders are Soichi Yamaguchi and Hidetoshi Akisato. Yamaguchi joined Bain in 2007, having previously spent more than eight years with McKinsey & Company in several different roles. Akisato was also a management consultant, but after more than four years with Boston Consulting Group, he had a stint as an entrepreneur before moving to Bain in 2013. The start-up Akisato co-founded, e-commerce business Locondo, received VC funding from Jafco, among others, and listed in 2017.

Investor sentiment on Japan’s middle market has improved in recent years on the back of encouraging returns and growing deal flow, the latter largely driven by succession planning situations. Overall private equity investment has increased as well – reaching $27.1 billion last year, nearly $10 billion more than the previous record high – due to a number of headline transactions.

Bain has historically been one of the most active pan-regional players in the country, making approximately 10 investments over the past seven years. They include leading a consortium in the JPY2 trillion ($17.6 billion) acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation, which won shareholder approval last October.

Earlier this year, another Bain executive, Atsuhiko Sakamoto, who joined the firm in 2007 and was most recently a managing director, left to join The Blackstone Group.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Fundraising
• Buyout
• Japan
• Bain Capital Asia
• Nippon Investment Corporation