KKR & Co raised its offer price for Fuji Soft above a rival bid by Bain Capital, winning the backing of the Japanese software developer’s board.
The private equity firm will pay 9,451 yen (S$81.49) for each Fuji Soft share, an increase from the 8,800 yen it originally offered and one yen more than Bain’s proposal, according to an exchange filing on Friday (Nov 15).
That values the company at around 637 billion yen, or about US$4.1 billion. The tender offer is expected to start around the middle of next week, the statement said.
Fuji Soft’s board said it supports the KKR offer and opposes the Bain bid.
KKR had already secured more than one-third of shares in Fuji Soft in an earlier tender offer, with activist backers 3D Investment Partners and Farallon Capital Management offering up their stock.
A weaker yen and regulators’ promotion of shareholder value are fueling M&A activity in Japan. Fuji Soft had earlier said it agreed to a buyout by KKR, even though it had received a higher-priced non-binding offer from Bain, because it judged KKR’s deal was more certain to occur.
Fuji Soft contracts software from Fujitsu, a supplier of computer systems to some of Japan’s biggest banks such as Mizuho Financial Group and government agencies. The software company’s been fielding demands from Singapore-based 3D Investment Partners, its largest shareholder according to Bloomberg-compiled data, to consider steps such as taking the company private. BLOOMBERG
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