Hideki Tanifuji, the Japanese founder and chief executive of Asian Mergers and Acquisition Links, has brought his expertise to the Philippines to invite more foreign capital.
Established in 2015, AMAL is a boutique investment bank that aims to guide businesses and corporations in merging and acquiring companies for business expansion and new industry opportunities.
Its services include strategy development, corporate valuation, financial consulting, pre- and post-merger evaluation and due diligence works.
With over 10 years of reputable corporate experience in the field of M&A and thorough understanding of the global market, Tanifuji is proud to bring his long-time passion and industry expertise to the country via his growing team of young Filipino professionals. Through his visionary leadership, AMAL has closed six deals, five of which were cross-border in just one year.
Prior to AMAL, Tanifuji was a former corporate officer in M&A Capital Partners which is one of the leading boutique investment banks in Japan. In 2007, he put up his own M&A company in Tokyo.
When asked why he chose the Philippines among other locations in the region for his work, Tanifuji says he sees great potential for M&A in the country and he envisions to bring a lot of foreign investors that can contribute to more growth for the economy. To date, three Japanese companies have invested in the Philippines through AMAL.
“The prospects of growing the business here are very high. Back in 2016, the Philippines has been recognized to be among the countries in the region whose GDP growth is the highest, at 6.8 percent, compared to its neighbors that are still struggling to achieve GDP growth stability. Majority of Filipinos are good English speakers, and the culture and quality of professional manpower are also plus factors,” he says.
With matured countries like Japan looking for investments and/or acquisitions in developing countries such as the Philippines, which he considers the top in the Asean, Tanifuji is confident that M&A will go a long way in the years to come.
“This line of business is unique in such a way that all efforts and resources of the company are focused only on providing financial advisory services, hence clients are assured that they will receive dedicated service from the company. Another core strength is that AMAL is an independent firm with no political attachments, has many strong connections with big Japanese companies, and has connections with big foreign companies in Australia, Singapore, and the US,” says AMAL finance director Shaela Mae Claveria.
In bringing companies from across the world together seamlessly, AMAL provides advisory services and assistance to clients that have M&A needs throughout the entire rigorous process. After assessment and evaluation of clients’ individual needs, AMAL matches companies that have same corporate goals and objectives with regards to M&A transactions.
“Due diligence is a later stage in M&A. Most accounting firms are focused on that. For us, while we support due diligence, our focus is to offer the total wholistic M&A package. Functions include tapping clients, introduce clients to M&A, negotiation for evaluations, all the works. Add to this the smart combination of Japanese financial business expertise and Filipino brand of rigor, a core competency that is unique to the Asian M&A Links team,” says AMAL chief operating officer Dinah Ilagan.
By paving the way for seamless, unimpeded business transitions, AMAL provides clients with maximized benefits in the form of immediate returns and long-term advantages.
While still considered a young company, AMAL is continuously growing in operations. In fact, it is positioning itself to become the No. 1 M&A company in the Philippines and one of the leading in Asia. To date, AMAL is one of the biggest in its industry in terms of manpower as it has 80 employees composed of the management team, HR, IT staff, accountants, marketing analysts, consultants and foreign language speakers/ translators.
Apart from transferring to a more spacious and modern office in Bonifacio Technology Center this year, Tanifuji says his other immediate goals for AMAL includes establishing a subsidiary in Bangkok in October 2018 with a target of growing into having 100 employees within the next five years.
Envisioning the long-term growth of the business, AMAL is also aiming to list in SME board of the Philippine Stock Exchange by second quarter of 2019. This is also the main growth strategy of Tanifuji to accelerate the growth of the company inorganically. Aside from the publicly-listed M&A firms in Japan, AMAL will be the only M&A firm to be listed in any Asian stock exchange.
Additionally, AMAL is targeting to be the number one in the ASEAN region and grow its workforce to 200 employees by 2020.
AMAL’s main headquarters is located at Unit 8, 3rd floor, Bonifacio Technology Center on 31st Street corner, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.