The six-month fight for Kakaku.com, the Japanese operator of a price comparison site and the Tabelog restaurant guide, is heading into a Nov. 12 deadline with shareholders being paid to wait. Swedish buyout firm EQT extended its tender offer for a 10th time last week at 3,683 yen a share, Reuters reported, while a rival consortium of Bain Capital and SoftBank Group subsidiary LY Corp lifted its offer to 3,700 yen.

Kakaku's stock closed at 3,747 yen on Oct. 28, the latest close cited by Reuters, above both bids, a sign that traders expect another round. For investors across Asia, the contest is the clearest test yet of how far Japan's opening to unsolicited and competing bids can push prices for sought-after assets. At about 157 yen to the dollar, the stakes run to roughly $5 billion.

How the Kakaku.com Offers Climbed

EQT started the process on May 13 with a tender offer at 3,000 yen a share, backed unanimously by Kakaku's board. At the time KDDI and Digital Garage, which together owned 38.1% of the company, had agreed to sell into EQT's offer, according to Reuters. Bain and LY, who had proposed 3,000 yen, raised their rival offer to 3,232 yen the next day, and LY said Kakaku's businesses had "extremely high strategic value" given the rise of generative AI.

The bids have leapfrogged ever since. LY and Bain moved to 3,384 yen in early July, valuing Kakaku at 670 billion yen, Reuters reported. Two weeks later EQT, whose consortium includes Digital Garage, jumped to 3,450 yen for a valuation of 682 billion yen, Sharecast News reported. By then activist fund Oasis, holder of 19.5% of Kakaku, had agreed to tender its stake to the Bain and LY group.

EQT has now raised its price seven times, Reuters reported. On Oct. 26, Bain and LY set their offer at 3,700 yen, rising to 3,720 yen if they win the support of KDDI, Kakaku's third-largest shareholder, Reuters said. The telecom group's choice is the swing factor. A higher price without KDDI would leave either bidder short of the control it wants.

LY, which runs the Line messaging app and the Yahoo Japan portal, has pointed to links between its internet services and Kakaku's sites. That makes it a strategic partner rather than a pure financial buyer, a pairing that bankers say is becoming more common.

Contested Buyouts Spread Beyond Kakaku

Financial sponsor-backed M&A in Japan totaled $24 billion in January through September, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. That was slightly below the year before but nearly double the $13 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2024.

Kakaku is the highest-profile battle since KKR outbid Bain for software maker Fuji Soft at a $4.1 billion valuation last year. Other contests are running. CVC and KKR are bidding for cosmetics maker Mandom, and Advantage Partners has made a counterbid against Integral for Kadoya Sesame Mills, the Nikkei reported, according to Reuters. In September, Hikari Tsushin joined MBK Partners and NEC Capital Solutions in a deal to buy Leopalace21.

Yusuke Watanabe, a partner at Carlyle, told Reuters that funds joining forces to bid is catching on and is likely to lift final prices. Gregory Salathé, a partner at law firm Freshfields, said a strategic co-bidder gives a fund an exit route when selling investments is hard. Akihiko Manaka, co-head of M&A in Japan at Bank of America, said buyers of prized companies now struggle to get them cheaply.

Boards still have room to say no. A Japanese government official said in February that companies are not obliged to accept unsolicited bids, even at large premiums, Reuters reported in May. The equity backdrop has also cooled: the Nikkei 225 fell 5.2% in October, a reminder that bid premiums are measured against a moving market.

Murakami-Linked Bid for Sankei REIT Closes First

Before Kakaku's deadline, another contested offer runs out. City Index Fifth, an affiliate of the former Murakami Fund, is offering 125,000 yen a unit, or about 58.4 billion yen, to take Sankei Real Estate private, Mingtiandi reported. The offer runs until Nov. 10.

Murakami-related parties already hold 29.9% of the REIT. The price is an 18.9% premium to the Sept. 24 close and above the REIT's net asset value of 114,099 yen a unit. The board supports taking the REIT private but has not recommended that unitholders tender, and a special committee's request for a higher price was rejected. City Index needs tenders for 118,732 units to reach 45%.

The same 125,000 yen price failed earlier this year, when a bid by Singapore's GIC and Tosei expired in May short of its threshold, after City Index built a stake of more than a quarter of the units.

Sankei's offer closes on Nov. 10. Kakaku's shareholders have until Nov. 12, unless EQT extends again or KDDI picks a side first.