Japanese IT company Fuji Soft’s founding family has reaffirmed its support for a takeover proposal by private equity firm Bain Capital, despite opposition from Fuji Soft’s board, according to a report by Reuters citing a jointly released statement with Bain.
In a bidding war with rival private equity giant KKR, Bain raised its offer to JPY9,600 per share last week, a 1.6% premium over KKR’s JPY9,451 bid, and became hostile after Fuji Soft’s board rejected the offer in favour of KKR’s.
Fuji Soft’s founder, Hiroshi Nozawa, voiced concerns alongside Bain, questioning the independence of the special committee established by the board to evaluate the bids.
Both Nozawa and Bain say they did not intend to be adversarial toward Fuji Soft’s executives and management.
Nozawa, who owns 18.6% of Fuji Soft’s shares with his family, publicly supported Bain’s bid in October, criticising how the privatisation process had been handled. KKR, supported by the Fuji Soft board, secured 33.9% of the company’s shares during the initial round of bidding, effectively bypassing Bain’s earlier, higher offer.
Fuji Soft rejected Bain’s proposal, citing concerns that two major shareholders would interfere with management decisions and that Bain’s offer would take three months to complete.
Bain’s bid aims to acquire 50.1% of Fuji Soft, including the Nozawa family’s stake, with the promise to manage the company with respect to the existing executives and management team.
