Kamgras 1, the EQT-backed vehicle bidding to take Kakaku.com private, raised its tender offer price for the third time in a month, to ¥3,680 a share from ¥3,571, as it works to see off a rival proposal from Bain Capital and LINE Yahoo. The offer period, open since May 13, now runs to September 29, and settlement has slipped to October 6.
The price rise matters most to Digital Garage, Kakaku.com's largest shareholder and the company that agreed not to tender its own stake. Digital Garage plans to sell all 40,917,700 shares it holds, a 20.68 percent stake, for a planned ¥122.4bn. Because it signed a non-tender agreement, its exit works differently from an ordinary tender: Kakaku.com will buy back Digital Garage's shares directly after a post-offer squeeze-out, at a price now raised to ¥2,992 from ¥2,903. Digital Garage says that buyback price is set so its after-tax proceeds match what it would get from simply tendering at the offer price, using a tax provision on deemed dividends, so it earns no advantage over ordinary Kakaku.com shareholders. If the transaction completes in the year to March 2027, Digital Garage expects to book about ¥37.0bn in extraordinary profit at the parent level and roughly ¥30.0bn as a gain on sale of an equity-method affiliate in its consolidated accounts, both contingent on the deal closing. Kakaku.com itself, which runs the price-comparison site Kakaku.com, the restaurant review platform Tabelog, and HR and incubation businesses, generated ¥94.1bn in revenue and ¥27.2bn in operating profit in the year to March 2026.
The repeated price increases trace directly to a rival campaign. LINE Yahoo and Bain Capital's private equity arm submitted a legally binding proposal in July for their own take-private of Kakaku.com, structured through a vehicle called BCPE Blitz Cayman, with LINE Yahoo planning to co-invest indirectly; that remains a planned competing offer, not a completed transaction. Oasis Management, a major Kakaku.com shareholder, had agreed to tender into the Bain-Yahoo camp, but that agreement lapsed on August 20 after Bain's side failed to match a rival price increase within a contractual window. Oasis said on August 18 it would not back any offer priced below ¥3,640. Kamgras 1's new ¥3,680 price clears that threshold, and the bidder says the odds Oasis will now tender have risen considerably, though no agreement has been reached.
KDDI, Kakaku.com's second-largest shareholder, has also signed a non-tender agreement with Kamgras 1, and that deal effectively sets a floor for any rival bid: to trigger the clause releasing KDDI's shares, a competing offer would need to price at least 2 percent above Kamgras 1's current bid, or ¥3,754 as of September 10.
To fund the higher price, Kamgras 1's parent lifted its planned equity injection to ¥225.0bn from ¥211.0bn. The bank loan facility stays capped at ¥225.0bn, drawn from six lenders led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho Bank, taking total committed funding to ¥450.0bn from ¥436.0bn.
| Date | Tender offer price (per share) | Self-share buyback price (pre-consolidation, per share) |
|---|---|---|
| August 27, 2026 | ¥3,571 | ¥2,903 |
| September 10, 2026 | ¥3,680 | ¥2,992 |
Kakaku.com's board has backed the Kamgras 1 offer since May but withdrew its recommendation that shareholders tender back in July, leaving that decision to individual holders; the special committee's underlying support for the deal had not changed as of August 28. Whether the latest price rise is enough to close out Oasis, and the offer itself, will not be clear until the tender window ends on September 29.