Bidding War Prompts Taiyo to Consider Higher Offer for Roland DG

Taro Fuse and Yuki Furukawa, Bloomberg News

A silhouetted pedestrian near the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Tankan business confidence and Tokyo CPI data at the start of the week will show the strength of price gains in September and the impact of inflation and global recession concerns on corporate activity. Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Taiyo Pacific Partners LP is considering raising its ¥61.9 billion ($400 million) tender offer for Japanese printer maker Roland DG Corp. to fight off an unsolicited bid from Brother Industries Ltd.

Taiyo Pacific, Roland DG’s biggest shareholder with a 19.4% stake, is weighing that option against two others — accepting Nagoya-based Brother’s takeover bid at ¥5,200 a share and abandoning the buyout when the tender offer expires later this month, Taiyo Pacific Co-Chief Executive Officer Brian Heywood said. Taiyo Pacific is offering ¥5,035 a share.

“We will study which of the three is most strategically correct for Roland DG,” Heywood said in an interview. Shares of Roland DG, which have climbed about 50% this year to well above both offers, were little changed on Friday at ¥5,480.

Japan’s office equipment industry, which is crowded with the world’s biggest copier makers, is undergoing long-overdue consolidation as more customers go paperless. Fujifilm Business Innovation and Konica Minolta Inc. are in talks about teaming up, while Ricoh Co. and Toshiba TEC Corp. are merging their multifunction printer operations.

But Roland DG, whose digital printers are used to print billboards, historic art replicas and fabric patterns, is charting its own path to protect its niche but high-tech capabilities, according to Heywood.

Roland DG and Brother agreed in 2019 to explore a partnership in product development, but that effort didn’t work out due to delays and quality issues, he said. A management buyout would help unlock further value in Hamamatsu-based Roland DG, Heywood said, adding that Taiyo Pacific would consider an exit in three to five years via a relisting or a sale to another business.

Still, Roland DG executives need to study Brother’s offer closely to see if it lifts corporate value, he said.

Born from digital piano maker Roland Corp.’s computer music operations, Roland DG was one of the first companies in Japan to abandon the assembly line in favor of one-person stalls where each worker can put together an entire product from start to finish. That model’s protected manufacturing jobs in Japan while helping Roland DG fine-tune its high-end printers.

The buyout that Heywood, who is a director on the printer maker’s board, and Roland DG President Kohei Tanabe have been pushing has been extended twice with the price unchanged.

(Updates with share reaction and background on broader printing market)