Nihon M&A Center Holdings Inc.
Suguru Miyake, President and Representative Director

Certain media reports have been published regarding a transaction in which Nihon M&A Center Inc. (“Nihon M&A Center”; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Naoki Takeuchi), a consolidated subsidiary of Nihon M&A Center Holdings Inc., acted as an intermediary.

We sincerely apologize for the significant concern and inconvenience this has caused to our customers, business partners, shareholders, investors, and all other stakeholders.

In response to these media reports, we would like to provide the following clarification.
This matter involves a former employee of Nihon M&A Center (who was responsible for the seller company), who, during the process of confirming the release of personal guarantees by a business owner following the completion of an M&A transaction*, sought to prevent the acquiring company from being registered on the M&A Advisors Association’s “List of named buyers” by encouraging personnel of the seller and acquiring company to state, in response to inquiries from the department responsible for confirming the release of personal guarantees, that the guarantees had been released despite the fact that the release had not actually been completed. In addition, the former employee was also found to have engaged in conduct that was contrary to Nihon M&A Center’s internal business procedures.
Upon becoming aware of this matter, Nihon M&A Center promptly conducted an internal investigation and dismissed the employee in July 2026. In addition, a strict disciplinary action was taken against the employee’s supervisor in light of the supervisor’s managerial and supervisory responsibilities.
We recognize this as an extremely serious matter, as it could impede the release of personal guarantees, which directly affects the seller’s significant interests, and could undermine the effectiveness of the “List of named buyers.”

Nihon M&A Center has continuously worked to strengthen its risk management framework throughout the M&A deal process and has established a multi-layered control system that includes verifying the financial capacity of acquiring companies during engagement screening, confirming the status of financing arrangements and the certainty of the release of personal guarantees at the time of execution of the basic agreement, explicitly stipulating deadlines for the release of personal guarantees in definitive agreements, and confirming the status of such releases for all transactions following the completion of M&A deals. Although these verification processes had been put in place, we take very seriously, as a deficiency in our management and control framework, the fact that we were unable to prevent such conduct from occurring or detect it at an earlier stage.

In response to this matter, we are conducting a further review of our business processes and internal control framework and are implementing measures to prevent recurrence, including revising intermediary agreements with acquiring companies, strengthening the review of personal guarantee release provisions in definitive agreements, tightening post-closing personal guarantee release confirmation procedures, and reinforcing compliance training for employees.

Our group, including Nihon M&A Center, regards the protection of our clients’ important rights and interests, including the release of personal guarantees, as one of its highest priorities. Under our Purpose, “To bring best-in-class M&A ever closer”, we will continue to make group-wide efforts to build and enhance a framework that enables us to provide clients with safe and secure M&A services.

*Confirming the release of personal guarantees by a business owner following the completion of an M&A transaction: To confirm the status of the release of management guarantees following the completion of an M&A transaction, Nihon M&A Center conducts confirmation procedures for all transactions through a department independent of the M&A consultant in charge, including telephone inquiries to the parties involved.

【Contact for inquiries】　
Public relations at Nihon M&A Center Inc.　pr@nihon-ma.co.jp