May 24th - Global Brain held an Asia IPO Seminar, “Entrepreneurs - Go Asia!” at Tokyo Midtown. The event was a success, with participation by 60 representatives of venture companies eager to go global and make IPO.

At the event, in addition to a presentation by Ernst & Young ShinNihon, guests were invited from the top securities markets in Singapore and Taiwan, Asia’s top two stock markets, and the audience was able to hear about the latest conditions and trends of the respective regions.

Also, Mr. Shinohara, CEO of EverConnect, an up-and-coming venture company which took a global approach from the outset with a multicultural team, enlightened the audience with a lively talk on his experiences.

Yuichiro Eto, Senior Manager at the Asia Market Listing Support Office for Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC

Mr Eto gave a presentation entitled [About IPO in Asian Markets], covering the market standards of the various Asian stock exchanges as well as the benefits to be gained by Japanese venture companies by going public in Asia. Mr Eto also gave a simple explanation on the varying market standards and costs of each stock exchange, and the support framework available for Japanese companies.

Daniel Chu, Senior Executive Vice President of the Taiwan GreTai Securities Market and Senior Vice President, Edith Lee

The Taiwan GreTai Securities Market is the emerging securities market of Taiwan and is equivalent to the MOTHERS of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In the GreTai market, many innovative IT ventures have gone public and, in recent times, online game and net-related ventures have been particularly prominent. Entitled “The Best Choice for the Development of New Companies” Mr. Chu and Ms. Lee gave an informative presentation on GreTai’s features and the activities they are proactively involved in to promote IPO of Japanese companies.

Shu Pong Den, Chairmen of Concord Securities and Sales Manager of the Underwriting Department, Hsinchi Wang

Concord Securities is the representative securities company of Taiwan. They boast the highest performance in the industry for underwriting of public listings. In Concord’s presentation entitled “Current status of Taiwan’s IT industry and the subsequent economical developments” Mr. Den and Ms. Wang spoke to the audience of the characteristics of the Taiwanese industry structure and the status of IT. They also explained about the support framework for Japanese companies who wish to make IPO in Taiwan.

Toshihiro Atae, Japanese Representative of the Singapore Stock Exchange

The Singapore Stock Exchange is the hub of Southeast Asian capital markets and a place where investors and corporations from around the world converge for lively undertakings. Recently, emerging equity markets have taken on a catalytic role, providing broad capital procurement and financial transaction support to global and venture companies alike. With the title “Listing on SGX 2012”, Mr Atae gave an insightful presentation on the advantages of Singapore compared with other Asian markets and the IPO status of Japanese firms in Singapore.

Global Brain Corporation

GB spoke about the KDDI Open Innovation Fund established in February of this year and the support we could provide to assist Japanese venture companies in going global.

Yutaka Shinohara, Founder & CEO of Everconnect

Everconnect provides a service which makes managing multiple social media such as Facebook and twitter much easier by unifying it all in one place. Whilst Mr. Shinohara himself is Japanese, his employees are multicultural, forming a truly global venture. Founded in 2010, Everconnect’s service was launched this February and, whilst still a young company, has been engaged in activities to expand to global markets with a focus on Asia right from Day One. At the seminar, Mr. Shinohara gave an entertaining and informative talk on his company’s experiences during the campaign to go global.

Global Brain will continue to strengthen investment and operational support of venture companies within Japan, and at the same time enhance our investment and support framework for overseas ventures, upholding our reputation as a provider of truly ‘hands-on’ support on a global scale.