Reuters (May 2)
“Diversifying abroad looks attractive to many Japanese companies given weak home markets” as demonstrated by Astellas recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Iveric Bio. “For the $28 billion drugmaker, which already earns the bulk of its revenue from overseas, exceptionally low borrowing costs at home may have boosted its offshore appetite even more.”
Tags: Acquisition, Astellas, Attractive, Borrowing costs, Diversifying, Drugmaker, Home markets, Iveric Bio, Japanese, Offshore appetite, Overseas, Revenue, Weak
Reuters (December 30)
““China’s gravy train will bypass Wall Street,” where the “easiest money from selling Chinese shares in New York is destined to fade.” Given renewed protectionism, global investment banks will also find it more challenging “to use their international networks to help companies find acquisition targets abroad…. It will be a harder slog for less money as the China gravy train makes fewer stops on Wall Street.”
Tags: Acquisition, Challenging, China, Gravy train, Investment banks, Networks, Protectionism, Shares, Targets, Wall Street
Financial Times (September 8)
“Dealmakers salivate over Japan Inc succession survey,” reads the headline. A survey on corporate succession by Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is being conducted on all first and second section TSE listed companies. The survey “is primarily an attempt to establish just how seriously Japan’s chief executives are taking the country’s corporate governance code a year after it was laid down,” but it may also reveal firms that, lacking a suitable successor, are open to acquisition by foreign companies.
Tags: Acquisition, Dealmakers, Governance, Japan Inc., METI, Succession, Survey, TSE
Financial Times (January 14, 2014)
“One trend that is prompting parts of Japan Inc to shop abroad is the ageing population. Japanese banks and insurers, for example, are increasingly looking to the younger demographics of southeast Asia to build up their next generation of depositors and policy holders.” And while this was part of the rationale behind Suntory’s acquisition of Beam, a new overseas M&A boom is unlikely given the weak yen, especially as many “companies remain unwilling to borrow for expansion after years of cutting costs and hoarding cash.”
Tags: Acquisition, Ageing, Banks, Beam, Cutting costs, Demographics, Depositors, Expansion, Hoarding cash, Insurers, Japan, M&A boom, Overseas, Policy holders, Population, Southeast Asia, Suntory, Yen
Wall Street Journal (December 22)
“How is it that a derivatives trading platform younger than Justin Bieber is about to acquire the New York Stock Exchange, which traces its Wall Street lineage to 1792? Thursday’s announcement that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) will buy NYSE Euronext for about $8 billion is in part the story of a tech-savvy upstart that quickly grew to eclipse established giants.”
Tags: Acquisition, Derivatives, Ice, NYSE, Technology, Wall Street
