Acquisition of Shares of Hakusan Inc.

Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Head office: 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hideya Moridaira) concluded a share transfer agreement to acquire 67% of shares of Hakusan Inc. (Head office: 2-2 Kuratsuki, Kanazawa, Ishikawa; CEO & President: Tatsuya Yonekawa; hereinafter, “Hakusan”) from an investment partnership “DPIP Private Equity I L.P.” (hereinafter, “DPIP-1”）managed by Daiwa PI Partners Co. Ltd. (Head office: 1-9-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Yuki Hayakawa) which is a shareholder of Hakusan, and from Mr. Tatsuya Yonekawa.

Hakusan holds the second-largest global market share for multi-fiber MT ferrule which is a connector part indispensable for optical communications, and its technological capabilities are highly regarded both in Japan and overseas. With its environmental and energy products such as lightning protection devices (SPDs) and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), it also supports social infrastructure that is essential for people’s lives.
While hyperscale data centers are expected to expand its market, largely driven by growing demand for generative AI, they need to efficiently connect a large number of optical cables. MT connectors, which can connect a number of optical fibers in bulk, are indispensable for high-speed, high-capacity communications for data centers. Especially, there is a growing demand for low-loss MT connectors which can help reduce optical loss in data centers, as they reduce frequency of signal amplification and thus save power consumption. We have been actively exploring a possible cooperative relationship with a partner company with excellent technological capabilities, in order to expand our MT connector business in this growth market.

We concluded a share transfer agreement with Mr. Tatsuya Yonekawa, CEO & President of Hakusan, and DPIP-1. Effective on January 30, 2025, we will acquire 67% of Hakusan’s shares. This partnership will create synergy between our comprehensive technological strengths and Hakusan’s expertise in developing optical connectors, including MT ferrules, and cost efficiency, thus establishing competitive advantage in terms of manufacturing capacity and product development speed. We aim to become the world’s leading supplier in the low-loss MT connector market, where demand is expected to continue growing, and also to become a pioneer in connectors for photonics-electronics-convergence devices in the computer-on-module (that integrates such key components as processor, memory, and storage) market. In the environment and energy field as well, taking advantage of strengths of both companies, we will work on solving social challenges as well as commercialization towards realizing safe, peaceful, and rewarding life under the Furukawa Electric Group Vision 2030.