Tokyo Star for sale? Advantage Partners interested?

May 10, 2007
By Ken Worsley

According to Bloomberg, Advantage Partners LLC, Japan’s largest buyout fund, is interested in acquiring Tokyo Star Bank for a price in the neighborhood of 290 billion yen ($2.4 billion). If the transaction happens, it will be the nation’s largest bank takeover in two years. Advantage Partners is reportedly considering buying the 67 percent stake in Tokyo Star Bank that is currently held by US-based hedge fund Lone Star.

Bloomberg speculates that:

The acquisition may herald more financial mergers in the world’s second-largest economy as companies compete for a greater share of the nation’s $12 trillion of household savings.

In 2001, Lone Star bought then-bankrupt Tokyo Sowa Bank for 40.3 billion yen, renamed it Tokyo Star, and took the bank public four years later, raising 86.6 billion yen.

No word yet as to whether or not Tokyo Star intends to put measures in place to defend against a possible takeover…

Filed Under Banking, M&A