from Bloomberg
KATSUYA TAKANASHI TO HEAD WIT CAPITAL JAPAN;
Nomura Veteran to Lead Japan's First Internet Investment Bank
TOKYO and NEW YORK, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Wit Capital Japan Inc., a joint venture between Wit Capital Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WITC), Mitsubishi Corporation, and Trans Cosmos, Inc., today announced that Katsuya Takanashi has joined Wit Capital Japan as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Takanashi, who will also serve as a Director, comes to Wit Capital Japan from a highly successful career at Nomura Securities.
Mr. Takanashi will be responsible for building a world-class team of investment bankers, research analysts, technologists who will create a platform for raising capital for growth companies involved in Japan's nascent Internet economy. Mr. Takanashi will apply his talent and over 30 years of investment banking experience to helping Wit Capital Japan transform the capital raising process in Japan.
Over the past fifteen years, Mr. Takanashi has held a number of executive positions within Nomura Securities Co., Ltd, Nomura International Ltd and Nomura Asset Management. Elected as a Member of the Board of Nomura Securities Co., Ltd, in 1986, Mr. Takanashi was charged with building Nomura's presence in North America. As such, in 1986 Mr. Takanashi was appointed President of Nomura Securities International North America, a position he held until 1992. While there, he helped turn Nomura's operation in the United States into the company's most profitable overseas subsidiary, while growing the firm from approximately 350 to over 1,000 employees. In 1992, Mr. Takanashi returned to Tokyo as Executive Managing Director of Nomura's International Division and a Member of the Executive Committee, where he was responsible for a number of key strategic areas, including research, product development and the firm's Asian strategy. Most recently, as Executive Vice President of Nomura Asset Management, Mr. Takanashi helped reposition the $130 billion asset management company to be more competitive in a Japan's deregulated securities market. Mr. Takanashi attended Waseda University and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University. "Mr. Takanashi represents a new breed of Japanese executive," said Andy Klein, founder and Chief Strategist of Wit Capital Group, Inc. "Skilled and experienced in the traditional business arena, yet bold and full of the vision necessary to see how tremendous competitive forces now require new thinking and dramatic reform. As we face the challenge of bringing new technology and new rules to transform the capital raising process in Japan, we are delighted we found a leader perfectly suited to the challenge." "After working more than thirty years in the capital markets, I could hardly sit on the sidelines and watch the Internet explode across Japan," added Mr. Takanashi. "Thousands of new companies are going to be created, yet our traditional capital formation system lacks any effective means to connect growth companies with speculative investors. The IPO process does not work efficiently, and venture capital as it exists in places like Silicon Valley does not exist at all. Our markets can and should now be transformed. Life- time employment and postal savings accounts have to give way to a culture where stock options and equity ownership compensate individuals for taking risks. The opportunity to play a role with Wit Capital in this emerging Internet economy is incredibly exciting."
About Wit Capital Japan
Wit Capital Japan, Inc. was established in July, 1999 with the aim of transforming the capital raising process in Japan. Once registered as a Securities Company, Wit Capital Japan will develop its electronic brokerage services. Using the Internet and the World Wide Web, the company will offer Japanese individual investors the opportunity to invest in public offerings and venture capital funds. In addition, Wit Capital Japan will provide Japanese Internet and Internet-centric companies with a variety of investment banking services, including underwriting for public offerings, private equity services, strategic advisory, and institutional quality research. Wit Capital Japan also intends to advise US-based companies seeking to create Japanese joint ventures.
About Wit Capital
Wit Capital Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 as the first online investment banking firm. With offices in New York and San Francisco, Wit Capital is an issuer-driven Internet company that offers an array of investment banking services, including underwriting for public offerings, private equity services, strategic advisory, and institutional quality research. Wit Capital also offers individual investors online brokerage services that include access to IPOs and other securities offerings that in the past have only been available to institutions and wealthy individuals. To date, Wit Capital has participated in over 130 public offerings.
Wit Capital is a registered broker-dealer and a member of NASD and SIPC. It is a publicly traded company listed on Nasdaq under the symbol "WITC." Approximately 20 percent of Wit Capital is owned by Goldman Sachs. For more information, please visit the Company's web site at witcapital.com.
SOURCE Wit Capital Japan Inc. -0- 10/04/1999 /CONTACT: Media, Robin Weinberg or John McInerney, 800-966-0676 or 212-688-6840, both of Citigate Dewe Rogerson; or Zoe Adlersberg of Wit Capital Group, Inc., 212-253-4400/ /Web site: witcapital.com (WITC)
CO: Wit Capital Japan Inc.; Wit Capital Group, Inc.; Mitsubishi Corporation; |
