Carlyle launches fourth Japanese buyout fund

The Carlyle Group announced that it has raised roughly $2.3 billion (JPY 258 billion) for its fourth Japanese buyout fund, Carlyle Japan Partners IV (CPJ IV). Officials also announced that Takaomi Tomioka and Hiroyuki Otsuka were named deputy heads of Carlyle Japan to further strengthen the firm’s private equity business in the area. The assets are more than double the size of its previous fund and the focus will be across three core industry groups in Japan. The new fund, CJP IV, will focus on upper mid-market investment opportunities across consumer, retail and healthcare, general industries and technology, media and telecom, as well as pursue large-cap investments on an opportunistic basis in Japan. Carlyle’s buyout funds have invested more than $2.7 billion (JPY 300 billion) in Japan, including co-investments as of year-end 2019. Last year, Carlyle Japan Partners III closed three deals including investments in Japan’s fifth largest beer brewery Orion Breweries, coated abrasive manufacturer Sankyo Rikagaku and global cosmetics contract manufacturer Tokiwa Corporation. Carlyle’s Japan buyout funds, advised by a team of about 20 investment professionals based in Tokyo, have made 26 investments in Japan. The team has a strong track record of supporting Japanese companies in corporate restructuring and business expansion, for both succession planning and carve-out deals. The team has completed 18 exits to date, seven of which have been through IPO. Carlyle opened its Tokyo office in 2000 and Tomioka and Otsuka took on their new roles on January 1, 2020 after more then a decade each at the firm. Tomioka has been with Carlyle for 17 years and is now responsible for succession-related deals and other mid-cap buyout deals. Otsuka has been at Carlyle for 14 years and now will spend his time working on corporate carve-outs and other large-cap buyout deals. The pair report to Kazuhiro Yamada, head of Carlyle Japan. “Our investments over the past 20 years have earned us the trust and support of our investors, who we would like to thank for their continued confidence in our ability to create value and drive performance,” said Yamada. “We are seeing growing opportunities in Japan across succession and carve-out deals, and with this larger fund and strengthened leadership, we believe we are well-positioned to capture these.” “We have been a driving force in the development of the Japanese private equity market for two decades, combining our deep local knowledge with our global platform to create significant long-term value for our investors and for Japanese companies,” Kewsong Lee, Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, said. “We are excited about how the market is evolving and will strive to further build out our Japan business by partnering with strong management teams and high potential companies to drive growth and value over the long-term.”

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