Marunouchi buys Japanese supermarkets

Tokyo-based Marunouchi Capital, a joint venture equally owned by Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, has announced it will take over the entire share capital of Seijo Ishii Co., a high-end supermarket operator in Tokyo and a wholly owned subsidiary of Rex Holdings, the Tokyo-based food business group. Not quite a direct secondary buyout, Seijo Ishii was sold by Rex, which is owned by the Tokyo-based private equity firm Advantage Partners (AP). Although the deal size was not disclosed, local news reports indicated that it would come in at around JPY40 billion ($482.8 million). Reports also noted that the supermarket will look at business opportunities in Asia.