Takahiro Saito

Takahiro Saito is a Partner in the Firm’s Corporate Department.  His practice focuses mainly on capital markets and merger and acquisition transactions. Taki regularly advises issuers and underwriters on global securities offerings by Japanese issuers, including Rule 144A/Regulation S offerings and U.S.-registered offerings, as well as listings by Japanese issuers on U.S. securities exchanges. The global initial public offerings by Japanese issuers that he has handled include representing:

• Underwriters in the US$307 million IPO and global offering by Timee, Inc.
• Underwriters in the US$136.2 million IPO and global offering of Astroscale Holdings Inc.
• Underwriters in the US$622 million IPO of Rakuten Bank, Ltd., which was named 2023 “Best IPO in North Asia” by FinanceAsia Achievement Awards
• Skymark Airlines in its US$244 million IPO and global offering
• Daiei Kankyo in its US$325 million IPO and global offering
• Socionext in its US$450 million IPO and global offering, which is the largest Japanese IPO of 2022
• Underwriters in the US$1.19 billion IPO of Mercari, which was the largest equity offering in Japan at that time
• Forum Engineering Inc. in its offering of US$117 million offering of 9,673,600 shares of Common Stock
• Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. in its $1.8 billion IPO and listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Regulation S/Rule 144A offering of common stock
• Skylark Co., Ltd. in its $698 million IPO and listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Regulation S/Rule 144A offering of common stock
• Seibu Holdings Inc. in its $438 million IPO and listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Regulation S/Rule 144A offering of common stock
• Underwriters led by Daiwa Securities SMBC and UBS Limited in the ¥110 billion IPO and listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Regulation S/Rule 144A offering of common stock by Idemitsu Kosan Co.

Taki’s representative equity offerings include advising:

• JFE Holdings, Inc. in its US$797 million offering of common stock to pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• International managers in US$ 1.9 billion offering of common stock to pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S by Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Hulic in its $670 million global offering of common stock pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. in its $3.6 billion global offering of common stock pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• SUMCO Corporation in its $557 million global offering of common stock pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• Mizuho Financial Group in its global offerings of common stock in 2005, 2009 and 2010; and the $850 million offering of preferred securities pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. in its ¥141.7 billion (approximately $1.5 billion) global offering of common stock pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• Taki also represented Mizuho Financial Group in its listing on the New York Stock Exchange of American Depositary Receipts representing shares of its common stock.

Taki’s representative debt offerings include advising:

• Initial purchasers in multiple senior notes offerings by Rakuten Group, Inc., including the $2.0 billion senior notes in April 2024 and US$1.8 billion senior notes in March 2024
• Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. in multiple debt offerings, including the aggregated US$1.5 billion of notes offering in February and July 2024, aggregated US$2.5 billion notes offering in July 2023
• Initial purchasers led by Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc., Mizuho Securities USA LLC, BofA Securities, Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in the $500 million 10.25% Senior Notes offering pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S
• Initial purchasers led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Nomura Securities in the $1.3 billion offering of 7.00% Step-up Callable Subordinated Notes due 2072 by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company Limited pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S

Taki has also been active in significant merger and acquisition transactions in Japan, including representing:

• All Nippon Airways in its acquisition of Pan Am Holdings
• Pola Orbis Holdings in its acquisitions of H2O Plus and Jurlique
• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in its acquisition of preferred stock of Orient Corporation

Taki joined the Firm in 1998 and became a Partner in 2008.  He received his LL.B. from Tokyo University in 1991 and his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1998.  He is bilingual in English and Japanese. He is recognized in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers: Japan/Capital Markets and IFLR 1000 as a leading capital markets lawyer and was recognized as one of eight global elite thought leaders in Asia capital markets by Who's who legal.