OREANDA-NEWS. Aozora Bank, Ltd. announced the joint establishment of a fund management company, with Kanematsu Corporation and ES Networks Co., Ltd.

AZ-Star, established in February of this year with the aim of supporting customers who are seeking growth opportunities in Asia, implemented its first investment project today through its corporate investment fund, AZ-Star Ichi-go Investment Limited Partnership.

As part of 'Aozora Bank's Asian Business Strategy', the Bank is committed to providing customers with information obtained through our transactions with local companies in Asia. With the establishment of the New Fund, Aozora aims to further strengthen the Bank's position as a trusted 'Primary Secondary Bank: An Even More Reliable Partner' for its customers by building upon our differentiated and specialized financial services.

The New Fund will make investments in Japanese companies expected to enhance growth by expanding their business into the Asian region. Through alliances with local companies and entry into local markets, the fund aims to leverage the sophisticated technologies and excellent services that Japanese companies offer, incorporating Asian growth into Japan.

Method of investment and future prospects Investments through the fund will mainly consist of common stock investments, as well as convertible bonds or other flexible methods of investment.

In the first stage, Aozora and Kanematsu collaborated with other partners, investing approximately 3.3 billion yen in total to establish the New Fund in April of this year. In the second stage, the Bank intends to obtain additional investments from its alliance bank partners in Asia as well as regional financial institutions in Japan, in order to expand the scale of the fund to 15-20 billion yen.

Through this partnership, Aozora and Kanematsu will introduce M&A and business alliance opportunities which can contribute to the growth of the Japanese companies they invest in and support collaborations with their business partners, by leveraging their respective financial (cross-border M&A alliance bank partners, M&A network in Asia) and company networks.

In addition, ES Networks will utilize its global network of accounting firms to respond to the tax and accounting needs of the target companies.