Kirkland & Ellis and Nishimura & Asahi are advising Crispy Holdings, a fund wholly owned by Carlyle Group, on a 135-billion-yen ($863 million) tender offer for shares of Tokyo-listed KFC Holdings Japan.
Mori Hamada & Matsumoto is representing KFC Japan, while Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu is counseling Mitsubishi Corp, the single largest shareholder in the fried-chicken seller with a 35 percent stake.
This sale comes as a part of Mitsubishi’s restructuring of its business portfolio amid a fast-evolving food and restaurant services trend in Japan, where aging population and health-consciousness have been changing demand from consumers, Mitsubishi said in a statement.
The Kirkland team is led by partners Jesse Sheley and Jeffery Norman, with support from partners Pierre-Luc Arsenault, Maurice Conway and Min Wang.
The Nishimura team is headed by partners Keitaro Hamada, Toshiyuki Nonaka, Hiroko Jimbo and Mayuko Nakamura.
Partners Koji Toshima and Takeshi Fukuda lead the Mori Hamada team.
The Nagashima Ohno team is headed by partners Sho Awaya and Yu Tamura.
