Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. - Acquisition of Augusta & Co Limited

Takefumi Sato is a partner in the M&A and general corporate practice groups at Nishimura & Asahi. He has represented clients in various M&A transactions and other kinds of domestic and cross-border commercial transactions. His broad M&A experience includes business mergers and strategic alliances involving listed companies and going-private transactions via cash-out schemes, management buyouts, and joint ventures, and covers a wide range of industries such as manufacturing and financial services. He has also advised companies on defending against unsolicited bids and hostile takeover attempts. In addition, he has a wealth of expertise in matters related to the Companies Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and has frequently counseled clients on corporate governance matters, including advising on shareholders meetings and providing support for business judgments. He also lectures and publishes in these areas. Moreover, he has recently expanded his practice to emerging legal issues in situations requiring difficult business decisions.

Madoka advises clients on various matters of competition law, including domestic and international cartels, bid-rigging, M&A transactions, investigations by the JFTC, leniency applications and general antitrust law compliance. She is especially active in cross-border transactions. She has represented clients in connection with investigations into various global cartels, involving air cargo, marine hoses, TFT-LCDs, airlines, and bearings, and also in various merger-control cases, including a vertical integration between semiconductor equipment manufacturers, and major global merger transactions in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. She has particular strength and experience handling IT-industry mega deals. Madoka is also active in advising in the international trade area, in particular, government procurement and export control. In addition, she advises on laws preventing unfair competition, including trade secret cases. She served as lead counsel to Nippon Steel Corporation in multinational trade secret litigation against POSCO (a South Korean steel company), a landmark case in this area, and successfully negotiated a favorable settlement for her client. She was a member of the Subcommittee on Unfair Trade Policies and Measures of the Industrial Structure Council at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry from 2013 to 2023.

Tomohiro’s practice focuses on M&A, joint ventures, and general corporate matters, with a particular emphasis on cross-border transactions. In the area of M&A, he has advised on many acquisitions of foreign companies by Japanese companies, MBOs and other de-listings of Japanese listed companies, and mergers and other integrations between listed companies. In the area of joint ventures, he has advised on numerous overseas joint venture transactions between Japanese companies and foreign companies. Over the last few years, he has also been advising clients in the gaming industry, and is ranked in the Gaming & Gambling category of Chambers Global 2025 and Chambers Asia-Pacific 2025.

Since 2009, as an attorney in the firm’s finance team, Toshiyuki has been handling various financial transactions and financial regulatory/compliance matters, with a focus on asset management and derivatives, his main practice areas. He advises both domestic and foreign asset managers, financial institutions, and corporates on financial regulation matters in the asset management and derivatives spaces, as well as on contract drafting, regulatory analyses, and development of internal controls for new product launches. Further, he has been involved in numerous cross-border finance transactions and investment transactions by fund operators. Recently, his practical experience expanded to the FinTech space, such as digital securities, and he has been publishing articles and giving presentations on artificial intelligence/machine learning in relation to finance industries. In addition to finance matters, he has extensive experience in handling regulatory defense matters and foreign class actions in cooperation with foreign law firms. Prior to being registered as an attorney-at-law in 2009 and joining the firm, he worked at a Japanese credit rating agency and the Tokyo arm of a U.S. investment bank as a credit analyst in the securitization space. He is a Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan and a Certified International Investment Analyst.

Shogo has extensive practical experience handling domestic and international M&A transactions, including acquisitions, carve-outs, and joint ventures. He has particular expertise in outbound M&A deals involving Japanese companies investing in the U.S. and Europe, as well as inbound M&A deals involving international companies making investments in Japan; he is qualified in Japan, the U.S. and England and Wales, and known for his excellent communication skills and client-focused approach to cross-border transactions. He is fluent in Japanese and English, and has experience working and studying in Japan, the United States, and the UK.