Herbert Smith Freehills has advised HORIBA, Ltd., a leading Japanese global analytical and life sciences instrumentation company, on its largest acquisition in the UK. HORIBA has acquired the entire business operations of MIRA Ltd., the United Kingdom registered vehicle engineering consultancy and testing services provider. HORIBA's acquisition of MIRA is to expand its vehicle development and testing business, and contribute to its development of next-generation vehicles.
Founded in 1945 and based in Kyoto Japan, TSE-listed HORIBA is a leading supplier in automotive test systems including for engines, drivelines, brakes, emissions and wind tunnel balances.
MIRA is a world renowned independent vehicle engineering consultancy, based in Nuneaton, near Birmingham, the heart of the UK's historic car and motor racing engineering region. For around 70 years, it has provided innovation in such areas as crash testing, environmental emissions, electric cars and motorsports car design. Its testing and development operation include an extensive proving ground and comprehensive test facilities, including a high-speed bowl and a giant skidpan.
Corporate partners Graeme Preston in Tokyo and Gavin Davies in London led the Herbert Smith Freehills team, assisted by senior associate Andy Young in Tokyo and senior associate Joseph Fisher and associate Candice Lambeth in London, and a wider team from across both offices.
"We are delighted to have assisted our client HORIBA in this strategically very important transaction," said Graeme Preston.
"Japanese outbound M&A reached record highs in the first half of this year, and our firm's established track record in advising Japanese companies on outbound M&A deals for many years means that we have been well placed to advise such clients developing their international businesses. Our Japanese clients particularly appreciate our ability to provide full service coverage for them on such deals out of both our Tokyo and our overseas offices, in this case London. This capability has allowed us to secure significant work during the recent boom in Japanese outbound M&A for a range of clients, such as SoftBank Corp, and Mitsui & Co. Ltd, and we are delighted that this is reflected in the league tables: Herbert Smith Freehills' Japanese Corporate M&A practice is currently ranked 1st among international law firms in Thomson Reuters' H1 2015 for completed deals by value with any Japanese involvement."
Additionally, Herbert Smith Freehills has spent considerable time building relationships with companies in the Kansai region of Japan, where HORIBA and many large technology and industrial clients are based. As more of these companies look overseas for growth, those relationships make the firm a natural choice for strategic outbound transactions.
Gavin Davies added:
"We are honored to act as HORIBA's legal adviser on this important strategic transaction. Despite some uncertainties in the Eurozone, Europe, and particularly the UK, has continued to prove an attractive destination across a number of sectors for international investors in the past year, particularly those from Asia. It is good to see such confidence reflected in transactions such as this, and our European M&A practice has been involved in some of the most interesting of these deals. ".
