Speaker details

Asia Pacific Mergers & Acquisitions Conference

9 Apr - 10 Apr 2026

The Peninsula Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Speaker information

Akira Wakamatsu

Biography

After obtaining a master’s degree from London School of Economics in 2010, he joined a professional football club based in United Kingdom as a person in charge of the commercial business and was based in London and Hong Kong. He also worked for a subsidiary of one of Japan’s largest banks in Indonesia. After returning from abroad in 2016, he had worked for domestic M&A firms and engaged in M&A advisory mainly for cross-border projects which include 1. Acquisition of an Australian construction equipment company by one of the biggest listed construction equipment rental companies in Japan (buy-side), 2. Acquisition of 51% shares in a Vietnamese short message service company by a listed Japanese company (buy-side), 3. Acquisition of a minority stake in a French test solution provider by a listed Japanese test equipment company (buy-side), 4. Acceptance of investment from a Japanese conglomerate by an Indonesian food distributor (sell-side), 5. Sale of shares in a Vietnamese joint venture held by one of the largest Japanese construction material companies to the joint venture partner (sell-side), Sale of shares in a Thai food company held by a Japanese conglomerate to a Japanese food company (sell-side). He joined Grant Thornton in January 2025 and is mainly in charge of cross-border projects.