U.S. law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Japanese firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune are advising global investment giant Blackstone on its $1.74 billion (275.8 billion yen) bid to take private Japanese digital comic distributor Infocom, which has hired TMI Associates to represent it.
The tender offer will amount to 141.4 billion yen, Infocom said. The company's current parent, Teijin, separately said it will sell all of its 58 percent stake in Infocom for 134.4 billion yen in a share buyback after the buyout is completed, according to Reuters.
The Infocom deal marks the largest private equity transaction in Japan this year, Blackstone said in a statement.
Global investor interest in Japanese companies has surged in recent years as the weak yen, strong public markets, and corporate governance changes make private equity and real estate attractive.
AMT’s M&A team on the deal was led by transactions partner Kazuaki Tobioka.
The Simpson Thacher team includes M&A partner Anthony King (New York), associate Sonya Ho (Tokyo) and transaction manager Tiffany Shih (Hong Kong). Partner Shahpur Kabraji (London) assisted on the finance aspects of the deal.
