Polaris to Purchase a Restaurant Chain Samukawa

Nikkei reported today that Polaris Capital will acquire restaurant operator Samukawa Food Planning Co. for an estimated JPY 6-7 billion (USD 73-84 million). Samukawa Food operates a total of 74 eateries through 7 restaurant chains in Tokyo and several major cities in Japan (eg., http://www.samukawa.co.jp/isomaru/en/ and http://www.samukawa.co.jp/toriyoshi/en/). Polaris will purchase all Samukawa shares from its founding family and the acquisition will be financed partly by a loan from Tokyo Star Bank. The current CEO, Mr. Samukawa, will remain in charge and Polaris aims to list the company within 4 years. Samukawa's latest sales and operating profits were reportedly JPY 11 billion (USD 133 million) and JPY 1.25 billion (USD 15 million). For Polaris, this is the first deal since July 2008. Polaris invested in 3 deals in 2008 (Nippon Oil Pump, Showa (pharma) and Aucnet) and exited from Q'sain earlier this year.