Cerberus completes Kokusai Kogyo exit - report

According to the Reuters, the New York-based firm - which initially acquired a 65% stake in Kokusai Kogyo for an undisclosed sum in 2004 - completed the deal on Friday, selling its remaining 55% stake in the company to the founding family which already holds the other 45%.

The value of the transaction is said to reflect Kokusai Kogyo's JPY80 billion sale of a property in central Tokyo to a consortium led by Nippon Life Insurance last December.

The exit leaves Cerberus with just one major investment in the Japan - a 35.5% stake in railway and hotel operator Seibu Holdings, which applied to relist on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last month.

Cerberus, which focuses on distressed assets, was one of the first of the major foreign PE firms to enter country in the 1990s but has since scaled back its portfolio. Early last year the firm sold most of its 58% stake in Aozora bank, having acquired control of the lender in an $843 million deal in 2003.

Several of Cerberus' Japan portfolio companies have seen tensions in a country where there is a still a degree of mistrust with regards to foreign private equity.

Not only did the US firm have to replace top executives at Aozora a number of times after it incurred heavy losses in the lead up to the 2007 global financial crisis but it has also experienced wrangles with Seibu management over the timing of the company's IPO.

Relations with Kokusai Kogyo have also been strained with a senior executives at Cerberus being sued by the Japanese company in 2009 over losses made following the sale of an asset. The suit was dropped by the Tokyo District Court last year.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Exits
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• Real estate
• Cerberus Capital Management
• Real estate
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• Japan