Big Motor’s Agreement with ITOCHU Reveals “Rift between Management and Frontline”

The company that has obtained exclusive negotiating rights for Big Motor’s sponsor company has finally been revealed. It is a general trading company Itochu Corporation. The company has come forward to provide support, along with its affiliates Itochu Enex Corporation and J-Will Partners Inc. The company’s condition was to eliminate any involvement by Kaneshige, the former president and vice president of Big Motor’s founding family, and his father and son.

 

Regarding the conclusion of the basic agreement, Big Motor released a press release on November 17 titled “Notice Concerning the Conclusion of a Basic Agreement for the Restructuring of the Company”.

In the release, both companies use the term “start of due diligence”. Due diligence means an investigation by the acquiring party to ascertain the actual status of the target company in advance. Of course, in the case of Big Motor, Deloitte, a consulting firm prepared by the bankers, has conducted a very broad and deep investigation, the result of which was the announcement of the “conclusion of the basic agreement,” but a more detailed audit will be conducted in the future. In other words, support is not a done deal, and there is no guarantee that the three ITOCHU-related companies will decide not to provide support as a result of the due diligence.