Polaris picks up Japan advertising, recruitment assets
Polaris Capital Group has acquired Sendenkaigi, which claims to be Japan’s leading publisher of marketing and communications-related content, as well as its recruitment-focused subsidiary.
The size of the transaction was not disclosed. Polaris is currently deploying its fifth fund, which closed at the end of 2021 on JPY 150bn (USD 1.15bn) – twice the size of its 2016 vintage predecessor. The remit is to back at least 10 companies with enterprise values in the JPY 11bn-JPY 74bn range.
Sendenkaigi released the first issue of its eponymous monthly magazine in 1954. It went on to develop a portfolio of magazines and books focusing on advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and creative fields.
The company also launched AdverTimes, an online news and information platform for the advertising community, an events and awards business aimed at marketing and communications professionals, and an education unit that hosts training sessions for industry participants and the general public.
Sendenkaigi claims its four monthly magazines have a subscriber base of 55,000, while its digital products attract 450,000 unique users. More than 30,000 people attend its events each year and a further 18,000 participate in training sessions.
Massmedian - originally a division but now a group company of Sendenkaigi - operates a recruitment agency and temporary staffing business that specialises in the same sector.
The company “leverages Sendenkaigi’s unparalleled brand power, trustworthiness and stable customer network, and has established a unique positioning as a specialised personnel agency in these fields,” according to a statement.
Polaris plans a variety of value creation initiatives, including strengthening the companies’ corporate foundations, sales and financial support aimed at accessing growth markets, and building out customers and content in the online space.
Polaris is not the first PE investor to target publishing assets in Japan. Notably, NSSK acquired Bunkasha Publishing, an 80-year-old manga comics company, in 2018 and realised value by digitalising the entire back catalogue. EBITDA margins rose from 2%-4% to 15%-20% and NSSK exited – with a 3x return – to local internet content provider Beaglee in 2020.
More recently, Anchor Equity Partners committed JPY 60bn to the Japan unit of Korean internet giant Kakao. Kakao entered Japan in 2016 and turned Piccoma, an online manga subscription service, into the country’s largest webtoon platform.
There has also been private equity activity in the advertising and media space outside of publishing. Earlier this year, Bain Capital sold online advertising and media management business Net Marketing, to Macbee Planet barely four months after taking the company private. In 2021, The Carlyle Group acquired advertising content provider AOI TYO Holdings through a tender offer.
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