Japan's Olympus to sell microscope unit to Bain for $3 billion

Olympus Corp said on Monday it had agreed to sell its microscope unit to private equity firm Bain Capital for 427.6 billion yen ($3.1 billion), in what would be the Japanese company's biggest ever divestment.

The sale of the unit, which also makes industrial endoscopes and X-ray analyzers, comes as Olympus accelerates its overhaul of its business portfolio to focus exclusively on medical technology. The unit will be transferred to Bain on January 4 next year, subject to antitrust regulatory approvals in Japan and abroad. Olympus said in a statement that the transfer to Bain would be in its best interest to allow the business to grow with more agile and flexible decision-making based on market needs. Bain is ahead of global private equity firms such as Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) and KKR & Co (NYSE:KKR), people with direct knowledge said. Private equity is targeting Japan, the world's third-largest economy, where conglomerates are divesting non-core assets. Bain owns flash memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp and is pursuing a second round of bids for Toshiba (OTC:TOSYY) Corp. During the Olympus overhaul, it invited activist investor ValueAct Capital to its board, bought several overseas medical equipment firms and sold its longtime money-losing digital camera business. The company's shares have nearly tripled since it began its restructuring in early 2019. Olympus, which started as a domestic microscope maker more than a century ago, spun off that unit for a potential sale in April despite being profitable. The unit, which had 165 billion yen in assets as of the end of June, forecasts an operating profit of 26.5 billion yen for the current fiscal year. Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!