ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has entered into a formal agreement to acquire 49.9% of the issued shares of Bellsystem24 Holdings, Inc. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Kenji Komatsu, President & CEO; hereinafter “BELLSYSTEM24”) from Bain Capital Partners, LLC (headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; hereinafter, including other group companies, “Bain Capital”), through a new joint venture company to be established with Bain Capital.

The deal is due to be consummated immediately upon obtaining the approval of the competition law authorities in the relevant countries where approval is required.

BELLSYSTEM24 is Japan’s largest contact center operations service provider, with approximately 20,000 operators in 22 centers and business bases it operates in Japan. Based on a track record of over 30 years as an industry leader since its founding in 1982, and the trust it has built up with its customers, BELLSYSTEM24 delivers high-quality marketing and customer service.

In addition to inbound/outbound traditional business process outsourcing (BPO) services using the telephone as the primary communication channel, the Company is actively undertaking BPO services that utilize rapidly expanding channels such as social media, as well as rolling out highly efficient and high value-added services using IT technologies.

ITOCHU is consistently strengthening its initiatives in the non-resource sector centered on the consumer-related sector. This investment presents ITOCHU with the opportunity to position the business as one of its core businesses, and by endeavoring to enhance the quality and efficiency of customer liaison and communications with consumers, ITOCHU aims to expand its operations further in this sector.

In addition, by promoting its use for the ITOCHU Group, which currently utilizes more than 5,000 contact centers, and employing ITOCHU’s expertise in the IT venture company network in North America, as well as harnessing Group companies such as ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Satoshi Kikuchi, President & CEO), which excels at introducing the latest IT technologies, ITOCHU will help streamline the operation, exploiting Group synergy to enhance the corporate value of BELLSYSTEM24.

BELLSYSTEM24

BAIN CAPITAL