CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS
The dramatic story involving Japan’s Fujifilm, its long-standing U.S. partner Xerox and American investor Carl Icahn is already the stuff of a corporate blockbuster. But this tale of money, trust and alleged betrayal still has a long way to run. …
今回、富士フイルムによる米ゼロックス買収において、アイカーンが古森重隆富士フイルムHD会長兼CEOを相手に仕掛けた罠は実に巧妙である。多くの日本人に見られる認識不足、すなわち、外国における法律とコーポレートガバナンスを取り巻く現実に対する日本人の無知さを最大限に利用して、その罠は仕掛けられている。
Billionaire American investor Carl Icahn has generated a lot of noise with his vociferous assault on the $6.1 billion deal in which Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings plans to take control of Xerox of the U.S. But the real risk to Fujifilm is …
孫氏のつくった「怪獣」であるソフトバンクグループ社には2016年10月までは頭が一つしかなかった。つまり、孫氏が監督する通信事業、その他の情報関連事業に資本参加したいと考える投資家は「ソフトバンクそのもの」に投資するほかなかった。しかし･･･
法律の政策論・実質論を優先するコモン・ローの法律教育を受けた者として、日本法の形式論はまさに不思議な印象を受ける。最近あるM&A案件において、アメリカでは絶対通用しないだろうと思われる不都合な法律を形式論で避ける工夫を、日本人弁護士に教えてもらい、この国の法意識はやはり我々のそれと大きく違うと感じた。
Recent overseas acquisitions by Japanese companies test the proposition that it is realistic to overcome stagnant growth and demographics at home by cherry-picking opportunities in emerging markets. The stated goal of many Japanese companies is to raise, by means of M&A, non-domestic revenues from 20% to 30%. The unstated premise is that the domestic market, which represents a declining 8% of global GDP, will indefinitely remain the mothership. Meanwhile, truly global companies in non-manufacturing sectors—consumer products, financial services, advertising, telecommunications and information technology– have obliterated the distinction between “domestic” and “foreign” markets by spreading revenues over the globe in rough proportion to regional GDP. This presentation analyzes the strategic rationale of at a series of recent overseas acquisitions by Japanese companies.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND INVESTOR RELATIONS
Two months after his arrest at Haneda Airport and confinement at Kosuge detention center, we now have a good picture of the criminal case against Carlos Ghosn-and it looks like pretty thin soup. …
The decision by Nissan Motor’s senior Japanese management to purge Chairman Carlos Ghosn by a criminal referral to the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office, and the prosecutor’s willing acceptance of the matter, are the wrong solution to Nissan’s systemic corporate governance failures. …
（日本語関連記事はこちら⇒ 日産でもルノーでもなく、私心もない真の独立取締役会が日産株主に必要）
… Beyond this unfortunate result, the technique Adeka used, within Japan’s existing legal framework, to increase its ownership of Nihon Nohyaku from 23% to 51% at a bargain price, while leaving general shareholders as unwilling minority shareholders of a devalued servant company, could never have succeeded in the U.S. or Europe. The approach would have fallen foul of laws that protect minority shareholders. …
Since “activist” investors, many of them foreign, first emerged in Japan more than a decade ago, the Tokyo corporate establishment has repeatedly rolled out the fable of “good” and “bad” shareholders to discredit them. …
（日本語版はこちら⇒「悪い株主」に関する無知な寓話で経営者の居心地を守ろうとするとある国）
Japanese companies across many industries face the same challenges — an aging population; shrinking domestic markets; the commoditization of products in which Japan once dominated; the emergence of multinational giants operating on a global scale that threaten the survival of domestically focused local players. The problem is, they are mostly addressing these challenges in similar and predictable ways. …
（日本語版はこちら⇒ 出る杭こそが日本企業の競争力を高める）
パナソニックは昨年１２月、東京証券取引所１部に株式を上場する住宅事業子会社パナホーム（大阪府豊中市）を株式交換で完全子会社にすると発表した。ところが･･･