The law firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Nishimura & Asahi both represent KKR & Co, which recently agreed to purchase Panasonic Corp's healthcare unit. The cost of the purchase reached JPY165 billion or USD1.67 billion. For Panasonic, it was legally advised by Nagashima Ohno and Tsunematsu.
According to a statement from the firms, a wholly owned subsidiary of KKR would purchase all the shares of Panasonic Healthcare Co. KKR would then allocate 20% of the shares in the wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic. For the transaction, Panasonic would be receiving JPY75 billion worth of profit and is still revising its annual report because of the change of ownership of one of its major units.
In a statement, Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga said, "We believe that partnering with KKR will also allow us to learn from KKR's global operational and business management expertise as we pursue the next stage in growth."
Panasonic Healthcare provides digital medical recording systems as well as instrumentation to measure blood glucose. This is the largest acquisition of KKR in Japan according to Bloomberg data. Panasonic sold the unit as it returns its focus to its overall plan to reverse its losses in the consumer electronics business in the next two years.
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