Nobuhiko Masuto

For over 20 years, Nobuhiko Masuto has been involved in a wide range of corporate finance activities including investment banking, private equity and structured financing in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. He has extensive experience in advising on M&A, IPO, private placement and LBO financing transactions and also has principal experience in equity and mezzanine investments. He has led the origination and execution of both cross-border M&A transactions as well as Japanese domestic deals.

Prior to joining GCA Savvian, Nobuhiko Masuto worked at Ripplewood Japan where he was responsible for origination and execution of buyout transactions. He was also heavily involved in post-acquisition management through his management roles in Ripplewood portfolio companies. Prior to joining Ripplewood, Nobuhiko Masuto worked as an investment banker for Daiwa Securities and Sumitomo Bank (currently known as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) Tokyo. During his career, he had the opportunity to establish Japan Equity Capital Inc., a private equity firm sponsored by Daiwa Securities SMBC, Sumitomo Corporation and GE Capital. Additionally, with Sumitomo, he spent over 8 years in London, focusing upon cross-border M&A transactions between Europe and Japan/U.S. and structured finance transactions for U.K. and Swiss blue-chip companies and municipals. He also spent time in the U.S., having been seconded to Robertson Stephens & Co. in San Francisco where he focused on the technology sector investment banking.

Recently, Nobuhiko Masuto represented All Nippon Airways in its investment in Skynet Asia Airways, the management team of Omron Entertainment Inc. in its MBO, and Matsuzakaya (a major Japanese department store) in its corporate defense actions against a hostile takeover by an activist fund. He has also led many successful large scale cross-border M&A transactions including TDK Co. Ltd.’s acquisition of Silicon Systems (a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer acquired through TOB), Sumitomo Heavy Industries’ acquisition of Lumonics (a Canadian laser technology company acquired through TOB), a Japanese trading company’s acquisition of Argo-Tech (a U.S. aircraft pump manufacturer through a consortium with Vester Capital) and Nippon Paint’s shareholding realignment with its U.S. joint venture partner.

He is a visiting instructor at Kobe University’s business school and often is a speaker at M&A and private equity related seminars. He holds the Authorized Sales Representative and Internal Administrator certification issued by the Japanese Securities Dealers Association (“JSDA”) and the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) in the U.K.

Nobuhiko Masuto completed his Masters in Finance degree at the London Business School, University of London, and received his undergraduate degree from Keio University, where he majored in Law.