Koki Holdings Co., Ltd.

Who owns Koki Holdings?
Private equity firm KKR & Co., which acquired the group (then Hitachi Koki) in 2017 and took it private. A reported sale process stalled without a confirmed exit.

Is Koki Holdings publicly traded?
No. It was listed as Hitachi Koki before the 2017 buyout but is now private.

What brands does Koki Holdings own?
HiKOKI, Metabo, Metabo HPT, CARAT and Sankyo Diamond.

What happened to Hitachi Power Tools?
The brand was renamed HiKOKI globally (October 2018) after KKR acquired the company and the Hitachi name license ended; in North America it became Metabo HPT.

When was Koki Holdings founded?
Its predecessor Hitachi Koki was incorporated December 18, 1948; it was renamed Koki Holdings in June 2018.

What is Koki Holdings' revenue?
Not publicly disclosed on a consolidated basis. Standalone parent sales were JPY 69.6 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2025.

The lineage reaches to 1918, when Nichihira Shokai began domestic production of electric drills in Japan. A series of mergers folded that business into Hitachi's orbit, and Hitachi transferred its power tool work into what became Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd. in 1948, which listed on the Tokyo and Osaka exchanges in 1949.

For decades Hitachi Koki operated as Hitachi's power tool arm, building professional drills, pneumatic nailers and woodworking machines sold worldwide under the Hitachi Power Tools brand. A pivotal move came in 2015 when it agreed to buy German professional tool maker Metabowerke, a deal completed March 1, 2016 that added a European premium brand and engineering base.

Then the whole group changed hands. KKR acquired a majority of Hitachi Koki in 2017 for approximately $1.3 billion and took the company private. In June 2018 the company renamed itself Koki Holdings, and in October that year the Hitachi Power Tools brand became HiKOKI (with North America renamed Metabo HPT). The dual transformation created a three brand architecture: HiKOKI for global and Asian markets, Metabo for European professionals, Metabo HPT for North America.

Under KKR the group restructured heavily: management was internationalized with non Japanese executives in most top roles, cost and site consolidations followed, and by the fiscal year ended March 2025 standalone sales recovered to JPY 69.6 billion after several declining years. KKR explored a sale reportedly valued above $2 billion, but the process stalled and no exit has been confirmed.

The company operates under ISO 14001 environmental management at major plants and reports standard Japanese manufacturer ESG metrics. Its cordless strategy aligns product development with emissions reduction in use.

As a private equity owned private company it publishes limited consolidated disclosure, and no third party certifications of note apply.

The principal scrutiny is ownership related: KKR's extended hold, the stalled 2022 sale process, and restructuring that reduced headcount drew Japanese industry press attention. The business itself carries routine product compliance load without major documented controversy.