Rikei Corporation (headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Satoru Isaka; hereinafter “Rikei”) announced that it has accepted a private placement of shares by VFR Inc. (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Executive Officer & COO: Koichiro Yuasa; hereinafter “VFR”), a company that operates a drone business.

Reason for the acceptance

Based on its philosophy of offering the market cutting-edge products with the latest technologies, Rikei is pushing forward with its mid-term management plan for the period between the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020 and the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, which was announced in May 2019.

Rikei will flexibly review its business domains and organizations in accordance with the growing resilience and stabilization of its current three business lines and with changes in the market. At the same time, it will pursue greater profits under the policy of advancing business partnership, capital alliances and M&A with other companies, which offer the potential to create new business domains or generate multiplier effects.

A subsidiary of VAIO Corporation, VFR is a venture company established in March 2020 for developing drones and offering solutions to facilitate and accelerate the drone-based innovation of social infrastructure.

The new business has already been launched and is faring well with the use of advanced design and manufacturing technologies accumulated through VAIO’s PC business and the management capacities of the company’s domestic and international supply chains. In fact, multiple orders for the development and manufacturing of industrial drones have already been received.

At VFR, development is underway on the assumption of the invisible flight of a drone with no assistant in a manned area. The VFR’s drone technologies have versatile applications in disaster control and many other purposes. In our view, this will add more to our strength and serve as one of the solutions we offer to customers.

Further, our VR-based simulation technology already has a track record in the development of self-driving cars and may be extensively applicable to the development of Japanese drones.

After the investment, we will deepen our partnership in pursuit of continued business expansion. Aiming to make this happen, we have accepted the private placement.

Profile of VFR

About Rikei Corporation

Since its establishment in 1957 as a solution vendor in the IT and electronics industries, Rikei Corporation has provided a variety of solutions ranging from systems to networks, VR/AR contents, electronic materials and electronic devices.

Rikei proposes solutions that utilize cutting-edge technologies and advanced products from Japan and overseas, and contributes to business development such as improving efficiency of operations and profits of customers.

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