In this article, we take two M&A deals by Japanese companies in 2022.
1. Investment in a recruitment service company by PERSOL HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
PERSOL HOLDINGS CO., LTD. released on 24th May 2022 that they decided to invest in a WOBB SDN. BHD.,HR service provider. WOBB provides recruitment platform service named “Hiredly” for young people, and recruiting service utilizing of AI.
PERSOL, established in 1973, is one of the largest HR service companies in Japan and they expand their businesses in 13 countries around the world. Their sales reaches approximately JPY 1 trillion, and market capitalization is approximately JPY 700 billion. In Malaysia, they operate PERSOLKELLY MALAYSIA with a major American HR service company as a joint venture, and they are the largest Japanese HR service company in Malaysia.
WOBB was established in Kuala Lumpur in 2014, and they accepted an investment in 2019 from CVC CAPITAL which is one of Japanese venture capital firms1. According to WOBB’s press release on 21st April 2022, this investment from PERSOL would accelerate human resource matching with AI, and they aim to become a leading company of HR services for Generation Y (generally born between 1981 and 1994) and Z (born between 1995 and 2010).
2. Investment in a digital contents provider by NOMURA Co.,Ltd.
On 7th July 2022, NOMURA CO., LTD. released their investment in FRAMEMOTION STUDIO SDN. BHD. which provides digital contents in Malaysia.
NOMURA, established in 1892, is a leading company in the fields of plan, design, construction, management of exhibition facilities, commercial facilities, and museums etc. with sales of approximately JPY 1,100 million, and market capitalization of approximately JPY 1,200 million. They have a local company in Singapore. In Malaysia, they worked on interior design of “J’s Gate Dining” which is a food hall with Japanese restaurants, shops of “LaLaport” and “Metrojaya”2.
FRAMEMOTION, established in 2008 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, plans and produces hands-on events and contents integrated multimedia. Their sales are approximately RM 22 million, and their total assets are approximately 30 million.
According to the press release of NOMURA on 7th July 2022, they acquired 6.25% of FRAMEMOTION’s shares in order to enhance function of digital content field and accelerate the creation of hybrid communication that fuse real and virtual world. They aim to expand and develop their business mutually in digital contents field with FRAMEMOTION.