Nidec's Tender Offer for Makino Milling Machine

By Kantaro Komiya and Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese manufacturing giant Nidec announced on Friday its plans to launch a tender offer for Makino Milling Machine at a 42% premium over Thursday's closing share price, regardless of the target company's approval.

Nidec intends to allocate approximately 257 billion yen ($1.6 billion) to the bid aimed at taking Makino private. However, Makino's board has not yet accepted the offer of 11,000 yen per share, as Nidec had not discussed it with Makino prior to the announcement.

The company aims to navigate regulatory processes by early April and to initiate the tender offer on April 4, even without Makino's consent, as stated in their announcement.

As a result, shares of Makino remained untraded amidst a flurry of buy orders on Friday morning, while Nidec's shares rose by over 1%.

Based in Kyoto, Nidec is the world’s leading manufacturer of precision motors and is recognized for its aggressive acquisition strategy, spearheaded by founder Shigenobu Nagamori. This includes a previous unsolicited takeover of Takisawa Machine Tool last year, valued at 16.6 billion yen.

Last year, the Japanese government released M&A guidelines aimed at encouraging acquisitions, including unsolicited bids, to foster industry consolidation.

($1 = 157.7400 yen)