A holding company owned by J-STAR No.3 SS, LP, etc. funds that J-STAR provides investment-related services to, has invested in Honest Co., Ltd. (“Honest” URL: http://www.rap-honest.co.jp/index.html). Honest has the headquarter in Yoshikawa City of Saitama Prefecture, whose representative directors are Mr. Masayoshi Nagatsuka and Toru Haino.
Mr. Masayoshi Nagatsuka founded the Honest in 1993, purported to manufacture and sell rebuilt1 parts for automobiles. The targeted automotive repair parts market has shown a healthy growth as an average life of automobile use extended. As a part of repair parts, the rebuilt parts market has been growing steadily since 2000 when recycling awareness increased. Honest became a leading company in the rebuild automobile parts industry by striving to apprehend customer needs with its excellent knowledge base, diversifying products developing technology, expanding production capacity, and proactively building up an alliance with industry peers. Also, the company established the Vietnam factory in 2007 to increase production scale and reduce costs, thereby has further growth potential.
Honest will continue to provide high value-added products and services with prominent quality and low price. Moreover, it aims to become a company that contributes to the society by raising the trust and status of the rebuilt industry and thereby plays an indispensable role in society.
After completion of the transaction, J-STAR will contribute to stabilize the business base of Honest and to support Honest to develop the business further.
Regarding this investment, Saitama Resona Bank acted as the financial advisor and Mori Hamada Matsumoto law firm acted as the legal advisor (including the legal due diligence). In addition, Fair Consulting Co., Ltd. conducted the finance and tax due diligence.
*J-STAR Co., Ltd. provides investment-related services to, from directly or indirectly through a wholly-owned subsidiary, J-STAR No.3 SS, LP, etc., providing researches about investment opportunities, as well as other investment-related services such as training to portfolio companies.