is a Japanese

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

that primarily owns

Seibu Railway is a conglomerate based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan, with principal business areas in railways, tourism, and real estate. Seibu Railway's operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name "Seibu" is an abbrevi ...

Prince Hotels The is the name of a hotel chain company headquartered in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Seibu Holdings, Inc. Together with Seibu Railway, Prince Hotels is the core company of Seibu Group. Overview During the Allied occupati ...

, and Seibu Bus and its

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...

, which are collectively known as the . In total, fifty-three companies across the world are affiliated with the Seibu Group. The company was formed in 2006 to restructure the group after it had come to light in 2004 that the predecessor to Seibu Holdings, Kokudo, had falsified the ownership of its shares in Seibu Railway for over forty years. As of January 2015, Seibu Holdings' share prices exceed ¥2900 and the company has the highest

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...

of any Japanese company which owns a private rail network.

History

In 2004, the Seibu Group collapsed due to the revelation that the head of Kokudo (the predecessor of Seibu Holdings),

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, ''Forbes'' listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94 due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. ...

, had falsified financial statements for over forty years. The scandal, which involved falsifying the ownership of Kokudo's share holdings in Seibu Railway, was compounded by the increased competition faced by Prince Hotels in the hotel and leisure market as well as an additional pay-off scandal involving a corporate racketeer. Seibu Railway was consequently

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are officially traded on a stock exchange. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, su ...

from the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

in December 2004 after shares fell to ¥400 from a peak of ¥8000. As a response to this, Seibu Holdings was founded on February 3, 2006 with the aim of restructuring the group following an investment of ¥100 billion from the American private equity firm

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing. ...

. Tsutsumi, having pleaded guilty to the fraud charges in 2005, retained a 5% stake in Seibu Holdings having previously owned a 36% stake in Kokudo. The company has been directed by Takashi Gotō since its creation in 2006. He is also a company board member for Prince Hotels (since 2006) and Seibu Railway (since 2010). Despite paying out ¥5.2 billion in compensation as a result of lawsuits concerning the scandals of 2004, the company made a net profit of ¥16.3 billion in fiscal 2013, an increase of 5% when compared to the previous year. In April 2014, Seibu Holdings was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange where shares had originally been evaluated at ¥2300. After Cerberus abandoned plans to sell a 15.5% stake of the business, however, shares began at the lower offering price of ¥1600 when they were relisted on April 23, 2014. The company ended the day at ¥1770 per share. In total, 27.8 million shares (about 8% of Seibu Holding's

outstanding stock Shares outstanding are all the shares of a corporation that have been authorized, issued and purchased by investors and are held by them. They are distinguished from treasury shares, which are shares held by the corporation itself, thus representi ...

) were relisted. It was later revealed that Cerberus had an agreement with their managing

underwriter Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabilit ...

prohibiting them from selling their share in Seibu Holdings until October 2014. The company exceeded its original ¥2300 per share evaluation in June 2014, with its share prices rising to ¥2945 on January 21, 2015. On January 19, 2015, Seibu Holdings'

of ¥975 billion overtook that of the

Tokyu Corporation The is a Japanese multinational ''keiretsu'' ( conglomerate) holding company headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. Its main operation is , a wholly owned subsidiary operating railways in the Greater Tokyo Area. History The oldest predecessor ...

. Consequently, Seibu Holdings attained the highest market capitalization of any Japanese company which owns a private rail network.

Businesses

Seibu Holdings is a holding company which has ownership over fifty-three companies. The companies that are affiliated with Seibu Holdings are collectively known as the Seibu Group. As of March 2014, it directly employs 371 people. Seibu Holdings entirely owns

, a major

passenger railway Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleratio ...

company founded in 1912. The company, which employs over 3,700, owns 176.6 kilometers of track and ninety-two stations in western

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and Saitama. Statistics released by the company for fiscal 2013 state that its railway network serves 1.7 million people daily resulting in an annual revenue of ¥140.7 billion. The hotel chain

is also owned in its entirety by Seibu Holdings. Formed in 1956, the chain caters largely for the Japanese tourism market with fifty hotels within the country but also has a limited number of overseas resorts in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Statistics released by the company state that, at the end of the 2013 fiscal year, there were 6,737 employees and that its

capital stock A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capi ...

was ¥3.6 billion. Seibu Holdings has announced plans for Prince Hotels offices to be established in Taiwan by October 2014 in order to cater for Taiwanese tourists, with whom the chain has proved most popular in terms of international tourist numbers. A diverse range of enterprises including:

pet A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...

care, transportation and

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

are affiliated with Seibu Holdings. Some of Seibu Holdings' subsidiaries have subsidiaries themselves. For example: Seibu Hire, Seibu Kankō Bus, Seibu Sōgōkikaku and Seibu Kōgen Bus are all subsidiaries of Seibu Bus. The table below details the companies affiliated with Seibu Holdings listed in Japanese

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

order.

External links

Seibu Group website

Prince Hotels website

References

{{Authority control Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Holding companies based in Tokyo Service companies based in Tokyo Transport companies based in Tokyo Seibu Group