Winning deals
Prize for Strengthening Healthcare Infrastructure
| Prize | Prize for Strengthening Healthcare Infrastructure |
|---|---|
| Recognized Deal/Company | Community Healthcare Coordination Platform, Inc. (CHCP) |
| Fund | Unison Capital, Inc. |
| Reason for selection | The healthcare infrastructure in Japan, which has an aging society, has an insufficient division of functions for acute medical care and later-life care such as rehabilitation, recuperation, livelihood support, and nursing. Hospitals that handle later-life care in outlying regions of Japan are inadequate or operate inefficiently. Therefore, their poor finances put them at risk of closing. This investment has great social significance because it attempts to make small- to medium-sized hospitals operate at a profitable scale and make this essential medical infrastructure for society more sustainable. It did so by applying a corporate business administration perspective and carry out roll-up mergers that would optimize hospital resources and keep open these hospitals that struggle because of operational inefficiencies. Although this deal was executed about a year ago, this investment has even greater significance in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The administration of hospitals, which are very much in the public interest and are considered to provide medical care as a benevolent act, are traditionally run by physicians, but there are limits to how much they can streamline administration and raise the quality of service. Unison Capital forms knowledgeable teams of experts in the healthcare sector to take on projects and make operations more efficient and sophisticated. They separated the care from the administration and have built a unique governance structure while operating under legal constraints, in order to make administration more efficient. The result is that in a littler over a year since the investment, the annual hiring of nurses has increased from five or fewer before the investment to 30 or more, while the hospital bed occupancy rate has improved to 25% or higher. Japan has many inefficiently run hospitals. The fund's support for hospital administration will not only work to turn around the administration of hospitals struggling under the pandemic, but it also contributes to improving medical service and strengthening medical infrastructure in Japan and its increasingly aging society. The deal exhibited this foresight and was awarded for its great social significance. Click here for the award winner interview. |
Prize for Regional Revitalization Through Management Reform
| Prize | Prize for Regional Revitalization Through Management Reform |
|---|---|
| Recognized Deal/Company | Meisui Bijin Factory Co., Ltd. |
| Fund | Carlyle Japan LLC |
| Reason for selection | This deal has two commendable points: 1) business succession enabled by the introduction of organizational administration and 2) the major contribution to the local economy by creating jobs. Meisui Bijin Factory Co., Ltd. boosted Meisui Bijin Sprouts into a top brand in the Kyushu region thanks to the fine ideas and business promotion of its former owner. In terms of business operation, however, the company was still an extension of a sole proprietorship, with no budget and no meetings, and with the owner checking daily sales over the telephone. Meanwhile, Carlyle invested in the company for the purpose of implementing a business succession plan, but in only the four-year period of the investment, Carlyle refashioned the company's mission and vision, then introduced business management to identify performance in a timely manner, and proactively recruited outside management personnel, thus gradually perfecting the administrative organization. As for business operations, Carlyle set up a new factory and expanded hiring to complement sprouts with another core product: cut vegetables. Carlyle's support also expanded sales channels to the Kansai region and elsewhere in western Japan, while increasing recognition to become the best-selling brand of sprouts in Japan. During the four-year investment, an administrative organization was built that steadily yielded good results as measured by sales, EBITDA, and hiring. This, more than anything else, is worthy of praise for accomplishing the initial goal of transforming the sole proprietorship under the previous owner into an organizational administration. In addition, this deal attracted heavy media coverage as a success story for creating local business. This was also fortunate in that it showed the public, particularly those in outlying regions of Japan, the role that PE funds play. This was a very happy byproduct for the PE industry. Click here for the award winner interview. |
Selection Panel
Member
Toshiko Oka
Representative Director
Oka & Company, Inc.
Member
Takeshi Kadota
President
Kadota ＆Co
Member
Keiji Mogi
Director
The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd.
Member
Tomonori Ito
Professor
Hitotsubashi University Business School