IRCJ may name
Daiei’s winning bidders

Advantage Partners Inc., a Tokyo-based private equity firm, said success in securing control of Daiei Inc., Japan's third-biggest retailer, would mark the buyout company's largest investment.

The Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan, the government agency that has run the retailer since October, will announce Advantage Partners and Marubeni Corp., Japan's fifth-largest trading company, as the winning bidders for the retailer within days, Japanese media report.

"The Daiei transaction would be our largest in Japan by far," said Advantage Partners' Tokyo-based spokesman Akira Iwamoto said in an interview yesterday. He declined to confirm media reports Advantage Partners and Marubeni had won the bid.

Advantage Partners would join other overseas and domestic buyout firms involved in trying to revive unprofitable companies in Japan. In Daiei's case, the IRCJ will retain a third share while prodding banks to waive some of its debt of about $9.5 billion. Advantage Partners' stake will be about 23.4 percent, more than twice Marubeni's 10 percent, the Nihon Keizai newspaper has reported.

Founded in 1992, Advantage Partners raised its first fund in 1997 and a second one in 2000. Part of the money raised in its third fund in 2003 will be used for the Daiei investment, with money to come from other investors as well, Iwamoto said. Norinchukin Bank Ltd., which mainly provides services to agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries, may be among companies contributing funds, he said.