ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today its decision to sell part of its shares of MAGASEEK Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Naoya Inoue, President & Representative Director; hereinafter “MAGASEEK”), one of ITOCHU’s consolidated subsidiaries, to NTT DOCOMO, INC. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Kaoru Kato, President & CEO; hereinafter “NTT DOCOMO”) in response to the takeover bid by NTT DOCOMO. Following the partial stock sale, ITOCHU will hold 25% of MAGASEEK’s outstanding shares and MAGASEEK will be an equity-method affiliate of ITOCHU.

MAGASEEK operates fashion e-commerce website focused on collaboration with fashion magazines’ exposure under the name MAGASEEK, and also operates Japan’s one of the largest fashion outlet e-commerce website under the name OUTLET PEAK. MAGASEEK was established in 2003 as a pioneer in fashion e-commerce. In 2006, it achieved listing on the Mothers market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and thereafter continued steady growth. In 2012, it implemented a complete revamping of its websites. Following the concept of “Select Shops for You,” it gains support from many different categories of customers consisting mainly of women in their 20s and 30s.

NTT DOCOMO is Japan’s largest cell phone carrier, serving around 60 million subscribers. For future expansion into new business domains to provide and contain customers’ smart-life, it is working vigorously to expand its business into commerce. Since many business synergies are expected from a combination of NTT DOCOMO’s diverse expertise in mobile services and its cloud services with a certain scale of clientele that MAGASEEK has in its fashion online shopping business, NTT DOCOMO decided to launch a takeover bid for MAGASEEK’s outstanding common shares with a view to making the company into a subsidiary.
Regarding this takeover bid as an optimal opportunity for further speeding up MAGASEEK’s growth by gaining NTT DOCOMO, a leader in the mobile industry that holds firm system infrastructure, as a partner to jointly work on the fashion e-commerce business, ITOCHU decided to respond to the takeover bid.

In the future, ITOCHU will make the most of its extensive expertise and networks in the fashion industry and the brand business that it has long nurtured, and combine NTT DOCOMO’s technical strength in telecommunications and its customer base with MAGASEEK’s merchandising and distribution functions in a bid to further expand business in the fashion e-commerce market.

Overview of MAGASEEK Corporation