Commission européenne, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Bruxelles, BELGIQUE  
Europese Commissie, DG  COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Brussel,   BELGIË  
 
Tel: +32 229- 91111. Fax: +32 229- 64301. E -mail: COMP -MERGER -REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu.  
  EUROPEAN COMMISSION  
Brussels, 18.1.2023  
C(2023) 588 final  
PUBLIC VERSION 
ITOCHU Corporation  
5-1, Kita -Aoyama 2-chome, Minato-ku 
107-8077 Tokyo  
Japan  
 
Tokyo Century Corporation 
FUJISOFT Bldg., 3 Kanda -neribeicho, 
Chiyoda -ku 
101- 0022 Tokyo  
Japan  
 Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., 
Ltd. 
16-1, Higashiueno 2-chome, Taito-ku,  
110- 0015 Tokyo  
Japan  
Subject : Case M.  10981 – ITOCHU / TOKYO CENTURY / HCM / JV  
Commission decision pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation 
(EC) No  139/20041 and Article 57 of the Agreement on the European 
Economic Area2  
Dear Sir or Madam,  
1. On 15 December 2022, the European Commission received notification of a proposed 
conc entration pursuant to Article 4 of the Merger Regulation, by which Itochu 
Corporation (“Itochu”, Japan), Tokyo Century Corporation (“Tokyo Century”, Japan) 
and Hitachi Construction Machinery CO., Ltd (“HCM”, Japan), will acquire  within 
the meaning of Artic le 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation  joint control of 
ZAXIS Financial Services Americas, LLC , a newly created company constituting a 
joint venture  (the “JV”) .3 
                                                 
1 OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 ( the ‘Merger Regulation ’). With effect  from 1 December 2009, the Treaty on 
the Functioning of the European Union ( ‘TFEU ’) has introduced certain changes, such as the 
replacement of ‘ Community ’ by ‘Union’  and ‘common market ’ by ‘internal market ’. The terminology 
of the TFEU will be used throughout this decision.  
2  OJ L 1, 3.1.1994, p. 3 ( the ‘EEA Agreement ’). 
3  Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union No C 492, 27.12.2022, p. 2.  

2 2. The business activities of the undertakings concerned are  the following:  
− Itochu is a trading company for various products from across a wide range of 
industries,  
− Tokyo Century provides a variety of financing services, including financial leasing services, operating leasing services and installment sales with regard to a variety of equipment,  
− HCM manufactures and sells construction machinery, transportation machinery 
and other machines and devices.  
3. The business activities of the JV will be  the offering of financing services related to 
HCM-products to dealers and retail customers, as well as financial services related to 
non-HCM-products upon request of its clients.  
4. After examination of the notification, the European Commission has concluded that 
the notified operation falls within the scope of the Merger  Regulation  and of 
paragraph 5(a ) of the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of 
certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No  139/2004.
4 
5. For the reasons set out in the Notice on a simplified procedure, the European 
Commission has decided not to oppose the notified operation and to declare it 
compatible with the internal market and with the EEA Agreement. This decision is 
adopted in applicat ion of Article 6(1)(b) of the Merger  Regulation and Article 57 of 
the EEA Agreement . 
For the Commission  
  
(Signed)  
Olivier GUERSENT  
Director -General  
                                                 
4  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.