By Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO (Reuters) -A $14 billion tender offer to take Toshiba private is set to succeed, private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) said on Wednesday, clearing the way for Japan’s biggest deal this year.
JIP’s tender offer, which closed on Wednesday, ends Toshiba’s 74-year history as a listed firm and puts the electronics-to-power stations maker in domestic hands after years of battles with overseas activist shareholders.
“It is forecasted that the tender offer will be successful,” JIP said in a statement, suggesting that at least two-thirds of shareholders have tendered their shares.
The final results of the tender offer will be announced once they are finalised, JIP added.
Now that JIP has gained a two-third majority, the remaining shareholders would be squeezed out upon a vote at a planned emergency shareholder meeting. Toshiba shares would then be delisted by as early as December.
The odds of JIP’s bid succeeding increased last week when it was revealed that Toshiba’s largest shareholder, Effissimo Capital Management, had decided to tender its 9.9% stake.
Japan is the only major market in Asia that has seen growth in mergers and acquisitions for the first nine months of this year.
The total value of deals involving Japanese firms this year through mid-September has increased 25% from the same period last year, buoyed by the Toshiba deal, as well as a planned $6.4 billion buyout of materials maker JSR, according to data compiled by LSEG.
($1 = 147.9100 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Tokyo Newsroom, Editing by Louise Heavens and Sharon Singleton)
