By Kane Wu, Makiko Yamazaki and Anton Bridge
TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Fuji Soft < founder and shareholder Hiroshi Nozawa said in a letter to the company, seen by Reuters, that he supports U.S. buyout fund Bain Capital’s takeover bid for the Japanese software developer.
Earlier this month, Bain made a binding offer to buy Fuji Soft for 9,450 yen a share, valuing the Japanese company at $4 billion and outbidding rival bidder KKR by about 7%.
Nozawa, in the letter on Thursday to the company’s board and special committee on the bids, urged Fuji Soft to withdraw its recommendation for KKR’s buyout stating that Bain’s offer was better.
“It is obvious that Bain Capital’s purchase price, which is higher than KKR’s purchase price, is in the common interest of shareholders,” Nozawa said in the letter.
KKR declined to comment on the founder’s letters. Fuji Soft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
KKR has said it has secured backing for its bid from Fuji Soft’s major shareholders 3D Investment Partners (3DIP) and Farallon Capital.
Nozawa sent a separate letter to the media on Thursday which said: “We hope that 3DIP, Farallon, and other major shareholders will accept Bain Capital’s tender offer and support us in quickly establishing a framework for future efforts to increase corporate value.”
Bain Capital told Reuters it would continue to support Fuji Soft by acting as a “white knight” to the management and founder.
The Nikkei business daily first reported on Nozawa’s letter to the company.
Bain and KKR have become rivals in a rare showdown to takeover the Yokohama-based informational technology group, which has been at odds with some of its major shareholders.
KKR last month brought forward the start of its tender offer by about a week at the unchanged price of 8,800 yen, and said it would conduct the tender offer in two stages.
Fuji Soft has said its board had decided to recommend shareholders to tender shares to KKR’s first tender offer.
Shares in Fuji Soft closed at 9,630 yen on Thursday.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kaori Kaneko, Anton Bridge and David Dolan in Tokyo, and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman)
