Buying Robeco for ¥240 billion — entering asset management in earnest (2013)

Attacking after the crisis, with management as the axis

At the core of this acquisition was the choice of moment: still on the road back from the crisis. To spend ¥240 billion on a first-rate European asset manager while the shares had collapsed and the credit rating had been cut suggests a reading of the crisis as a cheap window to buy — exactly as Miyauchi said, that in normal times the price would not have been available. At the same time, committing to a large acquisition carrying goodwill-impairment risk while the capital markets had not fully restored their confidence meant walking a rope strung between rating agencies who wanted stability and shareholders who wanted growth.

The meaning of the move, however, goes beyond a single opportunistic purchase. ORIX had been widening its territory ever since it claimed the label of comprehensive financial services with the 1989 renaming, but taking hold of the asset-management function on a global scale made its character as an investment company markedly clearer. The later move to full ownership, the change of name, and the swelling of assets under management run in a continuous line from this 2013 judgement. An acquisition struck at the end of the crisis response drew the outline of the next stage of growth.