2005年度（2005.4～2006.3）　ワークショップ講演

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Record of Workshop/Lecture l

Date: July 7, 2005
Lecturer: Mr. Atsuhiko Mizukawa, President of STB Investment Corporation (STBi)
Theme: “Management of venture capital by spinning off - My experience in launching a new business and making new investments”
Recorded by: Yasuyuki Murayama and Fumio Kano

1. Biography of Mr. Atsuhiko Mizukawa:
Graduated from Faculty of Economics, Keio University. After working at Sumitomo Realty and Development Co., Ltd., Citibank and the Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd., he has held the current position since the establishment of STBi in 2000.

2. Website of STB Investment Corporation (STBi):
http://www.stb-ifund.co.jp
Business content : Organization and operation of investment partnership and other. See website for details.

3. Summary of the lecture
(1) Define your concrete goal when you launch a new business
When I spun off from being project leader of Sumitomo Trust & Banking, I engaged in entrepreneurship by assuming the position of president of STBi. At that time, I set the goal of decreasing Sumitomo Trust & Banking’s entrusted operations by half within five years. I succeeded in accomplishing that goal. I first defined the goal in concrete terms, and then considered what had to be done to accomplish the goal, by calculating backward from the projected situation of a few years in the future. I advise some of you who want to launch a new business in the future to define a concrete goal and to decide on the process you should undertake in order to achieve it.

(2) Secondary market of unlisted shares
During the time of the IT bubble in 2000, many venture capitalists (VC), listed companies, financial investors and others invested in unlisted IT-related shares. According to one estimate, such investment amounted to 1.2 trillion yen. Those of the investments that were from funds have, in principle, a term of operation of seven years (after which the investment destination goes public, and the collection is done by capital gains). Meanwhile, VC-funded destinations must refund their investors in cash. In case, however, the investment destination is “living dead” (the expected growth of the invested-to business cannot be achieved, and there is no apparent prospect of going public), investors try to capitalise the shares as much as possible. Because so many investments mature in 2007, the secondary market for the unlisted shares has been active since around 2004. This kind of trading is still difficult in Japan, because of the restriction on transfer of shares, but the aim of our investment includes trading these shares.

(3) Holding down
Often, a real business does not develop as laid out in the business plan. Even if a business becomes living dead, there can sometimes be rapid growth at some later point. Once a business is launched, you should hold it down. By doing so, you may encounter an unexpected opportunity, whereas if you give up early you will have no such chance.

(4) Postscript by the recorders
As far as Japanese VCs are concerned, only STBi and a few other companies are operating actively in the secondary share market. STBi is such a rare phenomenon that we are quite interested in its future development. In addition, we were intrigued by Mr. Mizukawa’s statement that “A person can barely change,” which to us raises the question of whether people can change when change is absolutely necessary

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