EQT raised its tender offer for Kakaku.com to 3,700 yen a share on Wednesday, matching the price planned by a rival group of Bain Capital and LY Corp., and pushed the deadline for the six-month-old offer back to Nov. 26.

Kamgras 1, the EQT vehicle making the bid, lifted the price from 3,683 yen and filed an amended tender offer statement on Nov. 11, according to a notice released through the Tokyo Stock Exchange's disclosure system. Reuters also reported the increase to 3,700 yen that day, citing a filing.

The move closes a 17-yen gap that had left EQT's live offer below the Bain-backed proposal since late October. For shareholders of the Japanese operator of the Kakaku.com price comparison site and the Tabelog restaurant guide, the headline prices are now level, and the question is whether the Bain group answers.

Kakaku.com Board Presses Bain and LY for an Answer

Kakaku.com said in a Nov. 12 filing that it sent a letter on Nov. 11 to the Bain-backed group asking whether it intends to raise its price again. The rival bidder, BCPE Blitz Cayman, is a partnership formed by Bain Capital in which LY plans to invest indirectly. Its proposal stands at 3,700 yen a share, or 3,720 yen if it can sign an agreement under which KDDI does not tender.

The board made its frustration with the timetable plain. Kakaku.com said repeated extensions of the EQT offer, while the rival offer has still not started, are not desirable for the company's value or for ordinary shareholders if they continue for a long time. The two bids cannot both succeed, it said, and the board and its special committee will keep talking to both sides.

Its formal position has not moved. As of Nov. 12 the special committee's findings were unchanged, and the board still supports the EQT offer while leaving the decision on whether to tender to each shareholder, the stance it adopted on July 2.

EQT's increase followed a request from the target. Kakaku.com asked Kamgras 1 on Oct. 27 to discuss its price under their tender agreement after the Bain group lifted its plan to 3,700 yen from 3,597 yen the day before. Kamgras 1 made a 1-yen rise to 3,683 yen on Oct. 28 and said at the time that it was still considering the request, then agreed to the full match two weeks later. The bidder said it still regards its offer as the most attractive exit for shareholders.

Capital Times covered the earlier rounds of the contest in a report on the Kakaku.com bidding war.

What the New Terms Say

The tender period now runs from May 13 to Nov. 26, a total of 134 business days, against a legal minimum of 20, the filings show. Settlement would start on Dec. 3 rather than Nov. 19. The Nov. 11 notice lists eight earlier changes to the offer's terms, dated from July 17 to Oct. 28.

At 3,700 yen the offer is a 74.45% premium to Kakaku.com's 2,121-yen close on April 22, the last session before press speculation about a bid, and 33.38% above the 2,774-yen close on May 11, the day before the offer was announced, according to Kakaku.com's filing.

The price paid to the two large shareholders that agreed not to tender also rose. Digital Garage, which owns 20.68% of Kakaku.com, said the planned price at which Kakaku.com will buy back its shares after a squeeze-out went up to 3,008 yen from 2,994 yen. The figure is lower than the tender price because of the tax treatment of buybacks and is set so that Digital Garage's after-tax proceeds roughly equal what it would receive by tendering, the company said.

Digital Garage put the reference value of its 40.9 million shares at 123.1 billion yen. It expects a gain of about 37 billion yen in its parent-only accounts and about 30 billion yen on a consolidated basis if the deal closes in the year to March 2027. It plans to reinvest part of the proceeds for about 20% of the voting rights in the bidder's parent company.

KDDI and Oasis Remain the Swing Factors

KDDI held 17.70% of Kakaku.com as of Sept. 30, Digital Garage's filing showed, and has its own non-tender agreement with EQT's vehicle. Kamgras 1 said the Bain group's 3,700-yen and 3,720-yen prices both fall short of the level needed to release KDDI from that agreement, which stood at 3,757 yen after the Oct. 28 change. The Bain group has not said it will launch at a price above that level, Kamgras 1 said.

The EQT vehicle also said it has held several rounds of talks with Oasis, which the filing does not describe further, about tendering and that those talks continue, with nothing decided.

Kakaku.com reported revenue of 94.1 billion yen and operating profit of 27.2 billion yen for the year ended March 2026, according to figures in Digital Garage's notice.

The offer began on May 13. An earlier Capital Times report describes the contest for Kakaku.com.

The next fixed date is Nov. 26, when the EQT offer closes unless it is amended again. Under Japanese rules cited in the filing, a further change to the terms would add 10 business days from the date of the amended statement. Kakaku.com said it will disclose any new developments, including the Bain group's reply to its letter.