Willcom to Be Split, Receive Financial Support From Softbank
March 12, 2010, 2:48 AM ESTBy Pavel Alpeyev
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Willcom Inc., the Japanese wireless carrier that filed for bankruptcy protection, will be split and receive financial aid from Softbank Corp., Advantage Partners LLP and a state-backed turnaround agency.
Softbank will inject 3 billion yen ($33 million) in a new company spun off from Willcom, Tokyo-based Willcom said in a faxed statement today. Advantage Partners will invest 5 billion yen and the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. will help with financing, according to the statement.
Willcom, whose service is based on the older personal handy-phone or PHS technology, filed for bankruptcy protection last month. For years, Willcom lost subscribers to NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Softbank, which offer faster speeds for data transmission.
The Carlyle Group, the world’s second-largest private- equity firm, and Kyocera Corp. bought 90 percent of Willcom from KDDI for 220 billion yen in 2004. Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle owns 60 percent of closely held Willcom, while Kyocera has 30 percent and KDDI holds 10 percent.
--Editors: Suresh Seshadri, Young-Sam Cho, Jonathan Annells
To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.
