Hikari Tsushin, Inc.

Hikari Tsushin announced that it will team up with two investment funds to launch a tender offer for Leopalace21, aiming to take the company private with an outlay of about 270 billion yen. The offer price is 1,000 yen per share, and on the Tokyo stock market on the 15th, Leopalace21 shares were indicated at 791 yen, up 14%, or 100 yen, from the previous day at the daily limit high, drawing buying that converged on the tender offer price. Besides Hikari Tsushin, the tender offer will involve Asian investment fund MBK Partners and a fund affiliated with NEC Capital Solutions. Leopalace21 has endorsed the tender offer and recommended that shareholders tender their shares. Junichi Tazawa, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, said in a report that the premium of the offer price over the previous day's closing price is 44.7%, which is comparable to recent tender offer cases involving real estate-related companies, and that, given the company's expression of support, the tender offer is highly likely to succeed.