DaVinci Advisors, the Tokyo-based property investor, said on Tuesday its hostile bid for TOC, the property leasing company, had failed. Financial Times

DaVinci’s offer to buy TOC for Y1,308 a share – a significant premium - won only 40% of the vote, including its own 10% stake, highlighting the difficulties facing unsolicited offers in Japan’s close-knit corporate community.

The bid was opposed by TOC management and its founding family, which had earlier launched its own management buy-out at Y800 a share but was scuppered by DaVinci’s higher offer. However, 11% of shares were not tendered for reasons that were unexplained.

DaVinci’s bid, which was expected to succeed given the number of institutional investors who had expressed their intention to tender their shares, fell short of the majority stake the company wanted.

Osamu Kaneko, DaVinci chief executive, said: ‘If the bid failed at Y1,308 against Y800, then it means [shareholders’ decisions] are not based on economic rationality.’

The failure of the bid shows that ‘the capital market in Japan is still under-developed’, said one analyst. ‘Nevertheless, DaVinci’s bid was an important step because it forced investors to spend some time thinking about company valuations.’