Clifford Chance and Nishimura & Asahi have acted for private equity firm CVC Capital Partners on its 17-billion-yen ($1.2 billion) acquisition of Sogo Medical Group, Japan’s fifth-biggest pharmacy by store numbers, from Polaris Capital Group. Sogo and Polaris were represented by Mori Hamada & Matsumoto.

Tokyo-based private equity fund Polaris took Sogo Medical private in a near-100 billion yen management buyout in 2020, Reuters reported, adding that CVC aims for an early re-listing of the Japanese pharmacy chain through expansionary M&As.

“Over the years, Sogo has also developed an extensive network of approximately 740 pharmacies nationwide, including the medical malls developed and operated by Sogo to better address local healthcare provision issues” amid Japan’s ageing population, said CVC in a statement. “With the transfer of ownership to CVC Asia V, Sogo will continue to focus on key initiatives to provide high value-added functions and services to both medical institutions and patients.”

The Clifford Chance team, which advised on the anti-trust aspect of the deal, was led by partner Michihiro Nishi.

White & Case advised CVC on the financing for the transaction. The team was led by partners Clara Shirota and Naoya Shiota.