ITOCHU Announces the Underwriting of the Capital Increase though Private Placement by Prima Meat Packers, Ltd.
May 22, 2015
ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has agreed to underwrite shares issued by Prima Meat Packers, Ltd. (headquartered in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Tetsuya Matsui, President; hereinafter “Prima Meat”), which is engaged in the processing and sales business of meat, ham and sausage, to increase its capital through private placement and concluded a share subscription agreement with Prima Meat. As Prima Meat will also increase capital through a public offering, ITOCHU will hold a 39.36% stake in Prima Meat, the same investment ratio as before the capital increase, even after underwriting the shares. Prima Meat will continue to be an equity-method associated company of ITOCHU.
In addition to their capital relationship, ITOCHU and Prima Meat also have a cooperative relationship in the procurement of raw materials and the sales of products. The purpose of the capital increase by Prima Meat this time is to enhance its production facilities, and ITOCHU will support the measure by underwriting the shares issued by Prima Meat to increase the corporate value of the associated company through further cooperation.
ITOCHU will actively strengthen its business foundation in the domestic and overseas markets by combining the raw materials procurement, product development, sales and logistics functions of ITOCHU and its Group companies in Japan and overseas with the management resources of Prima Meat.