This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) website at 5:52 p.m. on Apr. 20, 2026.
MBK Partners is in the final administrative procedures to acquire Japanese ultra-precision machine tool company Makino Milling Machine (hereafter Makino). It plans to launch a tender offer in June and voluntarily delist, with the scale expected to reach about 2 trillion won.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 20th, Makino recently said in a disclosure that it would adjust the start of the tender offer being pursued by "MM Holdings" to late June this year. MM Holdings is a special purpose company (SPC) established by MBK Partners to acquire Makino.
Behind MBK Partners' push to acquire Makino Milling was a hostile M&A attempt by Japanese electronics maker Nidec. To defend against it, Makino sought a white knight and joined hands with MBK Partners.
While announcing the Makino acquisition plan in June last year, MBK Partners projected the tender offer would begin in early December, but the actual schedule has been delayed by about half a year. Although it secured antitrust approvals in the United States and China and investment screening approvals in the United States, Germany, France and Italy, Japan's investment screening under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA) is still ongoing.
Makino's mainstay five-axis control machine tools are used for high-difficulty precision machining such as aerospace parts and engine components. Machine tool technologies above a certain performance threshold can be diverted to military use, so they are treated sensitively in export controls and foreign investment screening. The industry believes these characteristics underlie why the Japanese government is closely watching the transaction from a security perspective.
For this reason, screening by the Japanese authorities is taking longer than expected. Because it is a transaction in which a security-sensitive manufacturing asset is transferred to foreign capital, authorities are said to be closely examining information management and governance after the acquisition, as well as the business operation system in Japan.
MBK Partners and Makino are proceeding with procedures to launch the tender offer while continuing consultations with the Japanese authorities. The tender offer price is 11,751 yen per share for Makino common stock. The planned number of shares to be purchased is 23,388,434 shares, excluding treasury shares. However, if subscriptions fall short of the minimum number (15,592,300 shares), not a single share will be bought. The acquisition will be made through the 6th buyout fund of about 8 trillion won.
Although the process is delayed, the market still sees a high likelihood that the deal will go through. A significant portion of key overseas approvals has already been completed, and Makino is making clear that "the contract with MM Holdings remains valid."
MBK Partners already has a major success story in the machine tool sector. It acquired Doosan Machine Tools (now DN Solutions) for 1.3 trillion won in 2016 and sold it for 2.4 trillion won in 2022. The deal is regarded as a model case of turning an unprofitable company into the world's No. 3 machine tool maker. The industry says MBK Partners raised corporate value through aggressive facility investment, research and development, and operational efficiency work.
MBK Partners is currently widening its investment footprint in Japan. It is pursuing a tender offer for senior care services company Solasto and is targeting closing (completion of the equity transfer) in August. Recently, it also acquired a 20% equity stake in Energy Point, a Japanese energy aggregator (an intermediary that bundles energy resources such as solar power and ESS into a single portfolio to sell or manage in the power market).