Mr. Kunishige is a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Corporate Finance business. He has more than three decades of investment banking experience. Mr. Kunishige is based in the firm’s Tokyo office.
Mr. Kunishige has advised on a wide range of cross-border and domestic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, stock transfer integrations, joint ventures, carve-outs, tender offers, LBOs, RMTs, and project finance. Mr. Kunishige has also been involved in capital raising and investor relations support for clients to enhance corporate value, particularly in the energy, power chemical and mining, and pharmaceutical sectors, with a consistent focus on general industries.
Previously, Mr. Kunishige was a Managing Director and Vice Chairman at GCA Corporation, which was acquired by Houlihan Lokey in 2021. Before that, he spent 19 years at Citi Group Securities, where he served as Co-Head of the Corporate Group for all sectors, excluding financial services in Japan. Earlier, Mr. Kunishige was with Nomura Securities for 11 years, providing M&A advice to clients at Nomura Wasserstein Perella, a former subsidiary of Nomura specializing in M&A.
Mr. Kunishige has participated in the annual World Economic Forum since 2013. He also co-authored a study with Professor Eiichi Negishi titled “Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling in Organic Synthesis,” which received a Nobel Prizein October 2010.
Mr. Kunishige holds an M.S. in Macromolecular Chemistry from the University of Tokyo. His research interests include inorganic catalytic chemistry and molecular biology.