Royal Holdings Co., Ltd. - Capital and business alliance with Sojitz Corporation

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.

Yusuke has a wealth of experience in the areas of capital raising by corporations, the formation of investment funds, and investments in investment funds, in transactions of all sizes, both domestically and internationally. In the field of capital raising, he has an extensive and excellent track record in the issuance of shares by financially distressed listed companies. In regard to fund formation and fund investment, he is constantly involved in numerous transactions, and advises not only on the legal aspects of those transactions, but also on market standards. He also provides advice on a wide range of financial regulations, including those in new fields such as fintech. His advice includes providing guidance on registering or filing notifications required for conducting finance-related business, analyzing new finance-related businesses, and establishing/reviewing the internal compliance rules/systems of his clients. Recently, he has become more involved in blockchain- and token-related matters, including not only those in the finance sector, such as fundraising by issuing crypto assets, listing crypto assets on domestic and foreign exchanges, and other crypto asset-related transactions, but also those in areas outside the finance sector.

Masatsugu advises domestic and overseas corporate clients on large and small sized M&A transactions and general corporate matters. He has also expanded his practice into M&A transactions involving medical corporations. Prior to joining Nishimura & Asahi, he worked for over three years at a small law firm on a broad range of civil cases, including loans and debt collections, real property transactions, traffic accidents, labor issues, bankruptcies and rehabilitations, litigation and mediation, and criminal cases. He studied at a U.S. law school and trained at a law firm in the U.S. before being seconded to the M&A promotion office of a Japanese company for two years, supporting its M&A activities as part of a principal team. Backed by his diversified work experience, he advises clients in Japanese and English, covering a wide range of inquiries and requests closely meeting the client’s needs.