ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI GROUP INC.(headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Reiji Inomata, CEO; hereinafter “HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI”), which is ITOCHU’s consolidated subsidiary engaging in the insurance intermediary business, has decided to proceed with a recapitalization through a reverse stock split, etc. After entering into a capital and business alliance with HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI in June 2014, ITOCHU continued to acquire the company’s shares in stages, making it a consolidated subsidiary in October 2019. With this recapitalization, ITOCHU’s final share ownership is projected to rise to 92.0%.

ITOCHU forecasts that demand for customer-centric insurance consulting services will continue to grow going forward. Meanwhile, customers’ lifestyles and consumption behaviors have been changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in the cost of living attributable to surging materials prices and a weak yen. This has caused a drastic change in the environment surrounding the insurance industry in which the company operates its insurance intermediary business.

HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI engages in an insurance intermediary business, providing life and non-life insurance products to individual retail customers. It is the industry leader due to its sales network of approximately 800 shops nationwide and the provision of a quality consulting service developed through its original employee training system. Under the corporate philosophy of being “an excellent and the most caring company for customers,” the company has been promoting its business with a focus on the unbiased selection of insurance products that best meet the needs of customers from among a broad range of products irrespective of insurance company or product, together with customers in the life insurance industry, where the mainstream approach had been insurance companies selling insurance directly to customers.

In the Brand-new Deal 2023 medium-term management plan, ITOCHU set out “Realizing business transformation by shifting to a market-oriented perspective” as one of its basic policies. Based on this it included the expansion of business through the enhancement and utilization of customer contact in the retail finance and insurance businesses, which hold the no. 1 position among general trading companies, in its growth strategies.
Through this recapitalization, ITOCHU will further strengthen the collaboration between ITOCHU and HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI while also responding to rapid changes in the external environment by leveraging ITOCHU’s networks and the synergy between its group companies. In addition, through the more unified efforts of shareholders and management, ITOCHU will seek to make management decisions promptly and enhance services for customers that are in line with the management philosophy of HOKEN NO MADOGUCHI with a view toward the achievement of the continued growth of business.