Advantage, KKR, Olympus line up for MBK-owned Yayoi

According to Reuters, MBK is looking for JPY75 billion ($977 million), which would make Yayoi the largest private equity transaction in the market this year. The South Korean private equity firm purchased the asset for JPY71 billion in 2007 at the height of the leveraged buyout boom. If MBK achieves its JPY75 billion sale, it would still make a strong return on its investment given the yen's current strength.

A Nikkei report from 2007 noted that MBK paid a high price for Yayoi, which at the time had less than 100 staff and EBITDA of around JPY4 billion. If that figure was accurate, MBK's price translates to 18x earnings. Yayoi's EBITDA for the past year reached JPY5 billion.

Morgan Stanley has been appointed to manage the sale, with MBK having set an October 10 deadline for first-round bids. It wants to complete the sale by the year's end.

This would mark KKR's second attempt at acquiring a leading software player in two months. In August, it lost out to Bain in the bidding for Australian accounting software developer MYOB.

Advantage, meanwhile, is looking to take a stake in Yayoi for the second time. It invested an undisclosed amount in the company in 2003 and divested its shares to Livedoor as part of its buyout of the firm in 2004. Livedoor sold Yayoi to MBK in 2007.

Yayoi was formerly called Intuit and operated as the Japanese subsidiary of US-based Intuit Inc., producing packaged software tailored to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Carlyle's nearly JPY70 billion acquisition of steel bearing maker Tsubaki Nakashima in March is the largest deal in Japan so far this year. The private equity firm followed up with the purchase of Tokyo-based medical staffing services firm NIC Corp. for JPY11.5 billion.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Exits
• Japan
• TMT
• Exit
• MBK Partners
• KKR
• Advantage Partners
• Olympus Capital Holdings Asia