Up Front Group To Be Listed Company On Stock Exchange?!

With all these scandal news flying about, it' so easy to miss out on other things that are going on in the Hello! Project world, especially the brighter news. I feel sorry for not covering Abe Natsumi's recent theater work and Viyuuden's boobs... err... I mean, their latest single. ^_^

Anyways, here's an intriguing news - word is out that Up Front Group, which Hello! Project is managed under, may be preparing to be a listed company in the stock market, as reported in the article published by Nikkan Gendai and covered by Yahoo! News.

It is stated in that same article, that up till March 2004 there were approximately 30 companies under the UFG holding company, many of which are not entertainment showbiz related. Perhaps UFG is doing a business remodelling in order to qualify itself to be listed in the stock market. By March 2006 UFG earns a gross profit of 138 hundred million yen and the company expanded its net worth to 257 hundred million yen. Recently, the company have invested heavily on the real estate sector. According to a personnel of a credit research company, it is noted that it is one of the options that a company can use to get listed.

If UFG succeeds in attaining a spot at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it will be the 4th entertainment business related company to be listed, the others being HoriPuro, Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. Ltd and Amuse Inc..

Here comes the interesting part of the article - Assuming that UFG has set its sights to get listed, every single movement it makes will be noted. It is likely that the company may want to reduce the severity of the many recent scandalous incidents. Namely, Kago Ai smoking scandal and her termination thereafter, and Tsuji Nozomi's shotgun marriage incident.

On the 9th of this month, UFG have reportedly spent over 100 million yen to promote the company image in 3 national papers.

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So finally I understand the mystery behind the news spread picture above. And supposing that this article means what it said, that UFG would be more interested in protecting its business interests and keep the scandals down, then I am well prepared to assume that Mikitty will escape this scandal safely. Unless of course, she says something stupid or do something crazy... like getting pregnant or something.

But somehow... I feel as if something's not right......