AVCJ

MBK sells Japan-based Yayoi to Orix for $692m

  • Andrew Woodman
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North Asia-focused buyout firm MBK Partners has exited Japanese accounting software firm Yayoi to Orix Corp. for JPY80 billion ($692 million).

The company produces packaged software tailored to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to a release, its flagship products include accounting software Yayoi Accounting and tax filing software Yayoi Blue Tax Filing. The firm currently boasts 1.25 million users nationwide.

The business is currently shifting its focus to monthly and annually-billed cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions from one-time purchases of software packages.

Set up in 1978, Yayoi operated under name Nihon Micom until 1996 when it became the Japanese subsidiary US-based software developer Intuit. The company was then the subject of management buyout backed by Advantage Partners in 2003 and changed its name to Yayoi.

Advantage then sold the company a year later to Japan's Livedoor for an undisclosed sum before MBK picked up the asset in 2007 for JPY70 billion, according to AVCJ Research.

The deal represented the first for foray into Japan for MBK which was set up two years earlier by former Michael Kim, formerly of The Carlyle Group. MBK initially tried to exit Yayoi in 2011, attracting interest from Orix, KKR, and Advantage and Olympus Corp. but was unable to reach a deal.

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