USA & Japan: Lichtenstein's Steel Partners raises stake in brewer Sapporo

Warren Lichtenstein's Steel Partners Ltd. raised its stake in Sapporo Holdings Ltd., Japan's third- largest brewer, which earlier this year said it may issue stock options to fend off any hostile bid, Bloomberg released June 21.

Steel Partners, a New York-based buyout fund, and ally Liberty Square Asset Management LP, a Boston-based hedge fund, increased their ownership of Sapporo to 18.59 percent from 17.59 percent, a filing to the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

Steel Partners spent more than 29 billion yen ($253 million) accumulating its stake in the brewer, the filing said. The fund purchased shares 13 times between May 18 and June 13, it said.

Sapporo, based on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, said in February it planned to offer stockholders with fewer than 20 percent voting rights options to purchase additional shares for 1 yen each, as a means of rebuffing hostile bidders.

Sapporo has 25 subsidiaries and 14 affiliates that sell beer, wine and brandy, and it runs bars and restaurants in Japan in addition to real estate businesses.

Steel Partners in 2003 became the first overseas hostile bidder for a Japanese company when it sought control of Yushiro Chemical Industry Co., Japan's largest producer of machinery lubricants. It also offered to buy a stake of more than one third in Sotoh Co., a Japanese textile maker.

Lichtenstein, 40, is also allied with U.S. billionaire Carl Icahn in an attempt to win control of KT&G Corp., South Korea's biggest tobacco company, which has rejected their $10 billion bid.

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