Top Japanese venture capital firm JAFCO cancels massive buyback plan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's top venture capital firm, JAFCO Group Co Ltd, said on Thursday it would cancel a $300 million buyback, because its stock price had lately been lower than levels at which activist shareholders had agreed to tender their shares.

JAFCO had planned to buy back shares worth 42 billion yen ($301 million) through a tender offer to allow a group of shareholders backed by prominent activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami to exit their combined stake of 19.53%.

Since the tender offer announcement, its shares have traded below 2,525 yen, the lower end of an agreed range.

The investor group had agreed to sell all of their stake at a 1% discount to the volume-weighted average market price from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, but that average had to be within the agreed range, JAFCO said. The company would continue discussions with the group, it added.

($1 = 137.6000 yen)

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Bradley Perrett)