BCPE Blitz Cayman, L.P., a limited partnership formed by Bain Capital funds, said on October 26 that it will raise its planned tender price for Kakaku.com from ¥3,597 to ¥3,700 a share. The price stays at ¥3,720 if the bidder can sign a non-tender agreement with KDDI. No offer has been launched: the bidder will start only after Kakaku.com's board backs it. LY Corporation, which is due to invest indirectly in the vehicle, relayed the announcement in its own disclosure.
This is the latest turn in a contest with a rival tender offer from Kamgras 1. Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage
Two prices, one KDDI condition
The higher price applies if the bidder can sign an agreement with KDDI, which holds 35,016,000 Kakaku.com shares, or 17.55% of the company. Under it, KDDI would not tender any of those shares. It would vote for the share consolidation at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, which would leave only the bidder and KDDI as shareholders, and it would sell to Kakaku.com in a buyback after that process is complete.
Without that agreement, the price is now ¥3,700, up from ¥3,597. The bidder says the ¥3,720 figure is unchanged from its earlier notice.
| Announcement date | Without KDDI agreement | With KDDI agreement |
|---|---|---|
| July 29, 2026 | ¥3,520 | ¥3,640 |
| September 16, 2026 | ¥3,597 | ¥3,720 |
| October 26, 2026 | ¥3,700 | ¥3,720 |
The bidder says it set the no-KDDI price after weighing Kakaku.com's financial statements, its due diligence, the prospects for the target's board backing the offer and for shareholder tendering, and, for LY Corporation, a Goldman Sachs Securities valuation dated July 28, 2026. The disclosure does not say why the price with a KDDI agreement is higher than the price without one.
How the price compares
The bidder measures its premium against April 22, 2026, the last trading day before press speculation about the Kamgras 1 offer on April 23. At ¥3,700, the price is 74.45% above that day's ¥2,121 close, or 75.39% at ¥3,720.
The picture is different against recent trading. The Tokyo Stock Exchange close on October 23 was ¥3,760, so ¥3,700 is a 1.60% discount to it and ¥3,720 a 1.06% discount. Against the one-month average of ¥3,796, the discounts are 2.53% and 2.00%. Against the six-month average of ¥3,535, the offer is a 4.67% premium, or 5.23% at ¥3,720.
The rival offer
The bidder says Kamgras 1 has raised its price four times since August 27, to ¥3,682 on October 14. Three of the four rises were ¥1, from ¥3,570 to ¥3,571, from ¥3,680 to ¥3,681 and from ¥3,681 to ¥3,682. The other, on September 10, took the price from ¥3,571 to ¥3,680. The bidder says the Kamgras 1 tender period is expected to run 115 business days, and it argues that the last two extensions were justified by ¥1 increases that could not sway investors.
The bidder's price is above ¥3,682 in both versions. The bidder cites that to rebut Kamgras 1's September 29 amended registration statement, which called the planned offer not a sincere proposal and one made deliberately without feasibility. The bidder calls the criticism entirely without merit. These are the bidder's views; the disclosure offers no independent assessment.
What has to happen before launch
The bidder says all regulatory clearances needed for the offer are complete. Launch is conditional on Kakaku.com's board expressing support and recommending that shareholders tender, which would follow a finding by the board's special committee that doing so is appropriate. The bidder also assumes that no material change at Kakaku.com has occurred and that no unpublished material facts exist. It says it has seen no sign of the first and expects the second to be met easily if Kakaku.com cooperates.
The bidder first flagged a mid-September start on July 29. It now says whether the board and committee conditions will be met, and when, is undetermined.
Its mid-November estimate rests on its reading of the May 12 tender agreement between Kakaku.com and Kamgras 1, as described in Kamgras 1's registration statement. Under that agreement, the target may ask Kamgras 1 to discuss its price if a third party launches a qualifying competing take-private tender offer priced at least 2% above the Kamgras 1 price, or if a qualifying legally binding competing proposal is announced. A proposal qualifies only if it meets conditions on funding certainty, regulatory approvals and the feasibility of its stated preconditions. If Kamgras 1 does not match within ten business days, the target may withdraw or change its support for the Kamgras 1 offer. The bidder says the same applies, without the 2% test, if the price of a qualifying competing offer or proposal is raised in response to a Kamgras 1 price change.
The bidder considers its new price to fall under that second route. It expects Kakaku.com to approach Kamgras 1 today or soon. If Kamgras 1 does not raise its price to the bidder's level or higher within ten business days of the day after that request, the bidder says Kakaku.com would be released from its duty to back the Kamgras 1 offer. It would then expect the board to back its own offer.
The document records the bidder's expectations, not any step by Kakaku.com. It says nothing from the target's board or special committee, and it states that the announcement is not an offer to buy or a solicitation to sell.