NTT DOCOMO acquires control of Monex

Monex Group, its subsidiary Monex and NTT DOCOMO have entered into a capital and business alliance agreement that includes the following steps:

• an intermediate holding company, Monex Holdings (the “Intermediate Holding Company”), will be formed by Monex by means of a sole share-transfer (tandoku-kabushiki-iten) (the “Share Transfer”), and then
• the Company will sell some of such common shares it holds in the Intermediate Holding Company to NTT DOCOMO and
• the Intermediate Holding Company will newly issue additional common shares by way of a third-party allotment to NTT DOCOMO.

Although the voting rights ratio of the Intermediate Holding Company, the wholly-owning parent company of Monex, will be approximately 51% for Monex Group and approximately 49% for NTT DOCOMO, the Intermediate Holding Company and Monex will become consolidated subsidiaries of NTT DOCOMO based on the effective control standard (the majority of board directors). However, the three companies have agreed to respect the independence of Monex’s management and to aim for medium- to long-term growth of Monex while maintaining Monex’s name, and protecting its corporate philosophy and brand.

Purpose of the Alliance

NTT DOCOMO accounts for 36.1% of the number of mobile subscribers in Japan, has customer contact points through approximately 2,160 “docomo Shop” stores and has approximately a ninety-six million account membership base through the marketing platform called “d POINT CLUB.”

By implementing the Capital Business Alliance and by combining Monex’s customer and business bases that it has cultivated thus far with NTT DOCOMO’s customer and business bases, Monex, while it continues to have its strong desire to assist individuals and contribute to their asset building, will be seeking to create next-generation asset building services that are the most chosen by customers, and further to generate a social impact that will greatly advance individuals’ asset building in Japan through investments.

In addition, the Capital Business Alliance will not only enable Monex’s business to develop significantly through collaboration with NTT DOCOMO, but will also promote the Company’s transformation into an optimal business structure to pursue designing innovative ways of managing money, through the reorganization of its consolidated subsidiaries. Monex Group has developed by having online securities business in Japan and the United States as its core business. In recent years, this has expanded to include a crypto-asset business, asset management business, and education business.

Utilizing the cash from the Sale of Shares, Monex Group plans to further strengthen their asset management business, which they consider to be an important growth business, and to strengthen the business portfolio of the entire group. In order to meet the expectations of investors and customers, Monex Group will continue to pursue the best business structure for the ever-changing future, constantly striving to further develop and expand our capabilities.

Monex’s name will remain unchanged, and Yuko Seimei, the current Representative Director and President, will continue to serve as the President of Monex on and after January 4, 2024, the date Monex will become an NTT DOCOMO’s consolidated subsidiary.

As stated above at the beginning, the Capital Business Alliance will be implemented in a manner that respects the independence of Monex’s management and its corporate philosophy and brand. Oki Matsumoto, the Representative Executive Officer & Chairman of the Company, will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermediate Holding Company, and, together with Yuko Seimei who will also serve as director of the Intermediate Holding Company, will continue to be involved in the growth of Monex, which will become a consolidated subsidiary of the Intermediate Holding Company.

Description of the Alliance

The outline of the business alliance that Monex Group, Monex and NTT DOCOMO have agreed to under the Capital Business Alliance Agreement are as described below. The three companies will discuss the further details of and the methods for implementing the business alliance.

Monex Group will provide Monex with brand licensing and human resources and general affairs management services.

The three companies will create new value by each providing know-how and engineering service. The three companies will also cooperate in personnel exchange and recruiting assistance.

The three companies to jointly develop and promote asset building services which will be mainly provided by Monex by utilizing customer bases, management resources, know-hows, and engineering abilities of NTT DOCOMO.

• Providing asset building services that are ‘easy and simple’ even for beginners: the three companies will provide asset building services for beginners with the d-Barai app. While utilizing an easy-to-use user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) as the foundation, they will support their customers to build their assets steadily by continuously providing information and products that are personalized based on user needs, especially for novice investors. They will also consider strengthening the linkage between services of NTT DOCOMO, such as d POINT, d-Barai and d ACCOUNT, and brokerage services of Monex. This includes awarding d POINT rewards based on brokerage transactions, balances and account openings, as well as deposits and withdrawals through d-Barai, and enabling periodic investment plans with d-Barai and d CARD.
• Offering the best products for each individual by utilizing database of NTT DOCOMO and Monex: the three companies will cooperate in promoting customer relationship management (CRM) for financial services so as to attain visualization of customer needs and realization of personalized communication by combing, with customers’ consent, if necessary, the NTT DOCOMO’s 96 million-member database with the data that has been accumulated by Monex.
• Provision of investment information and financial educational services: the three companies will provide a variety of educational contents and hold seminars for everyone from a beginner to a person who is familiar with investing to enhance our customers’ investment knowledge and financial literacy.
• Customer support services by AI: the three companies will utilize AI to assist each customer in solving concerns relating to investment.
• Adding next-generation financial products such as STO (Security Token Offering): the three companies will consider development and sale of pioneering financial products in order to meet the diverse needs of investors that are changing along with social trends.

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