A&O Shearman’s M&A team in Tokyo offers a comprehensive service covering outbound investments, foreign direct investments, joint ventures, and public and private acquisitions and divestitures. Recent highlights for the group include advising Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) on its offshore fund structuring and fundraising in connection with a JIP-led consortium’s $15.2bn take-private tender offer proposal for Toshiba Corporation. Practice head Karl Pires has more than 26 years' experience in a broad range of public and private cross-border M&A transactions, including strategic acquisitions, minority investments, divestitures, and joint ventures. Masahisa Ikeda’s varied practice sees him advise domestic and international companies on cross-border acquisitions as well as industrial and financial clients on corporate governance. Nick Wall, Tokutaka Ito, and Toshiro Mochizuki are also key contacts in the group.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Tokutaka Ito not only provides legal advice on documents but leads negotiations tactically with the counterparty. Even when negotiations get stuck, he has the techniques to turn that around and to make progress.’
'Due to Karl Pires' work and approach to serving our needs, we are very happy with our legal representation.'
Key clients
- Benesse Holdings Inc.
- Ajinomoto Co., Inc
Work highlights
- Advised Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) on its offshore fund structuring and fundraising in connection with a JIP-led consortium’s successful tender offer for Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba).
- Advised Benesse Holdings Inc. on a management buyout by the EQT AB Group (including its affiliates and other related entities), through Bloom 1 K.K. and members of the Fukutake family, the founding family of Benesse.