The common stock was issued through the Kamakura's newly-formed Delaware parent company. Investors include David Shimko, Lee Wakeman, George Holt, Sanjay Arora and Kamakura managing committee members Donald van Deventer, Robert Jarrow and Tatsuo Kishi. Convergent Technology Capital is advising the company on a subsequent offering of preferred stock to institutional investors.

Shimko, who is president of Risk Capital Management Partners, is the former head of risk management research for JP Morgan Securities and former head of the risk management advisory group at Bankers Trust. He was recently named as Kamakura's first outside director.

Wakeman is currently head of North American business strategy at Credit Agricole-Indosuez. Wakeman joined Citicorp’s London swaps team in 1984. He has since served in key positions at Chemical Bank, Continental Illinois, and Sakura Global Capital before founding TMG Financial Products, where he was chief executive officer.

Holt is the former managing director of the quantitative risk management practice at Arthur Andersen. He was head of mortgage finance at Nomura Securities International and was previously with First Interstate Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Arora is senior vice president and co-head of the international yen sales group at Lehman Brothers Japan. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers in 1994, Arora spent seven years with Morgan Stanley Japan, as vice president of the futures and options desk.

Van Deventer founded Kamakura Corporation in 1990 after serving as senior vice president in the investment banking department of Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. Jarrow is serving as managing director for research at Kamakura and Kishi as managing director for Japan.

The proceeds of the common stock issue will be used for working capital purposes and to refinance debt of the former Japanese parent company, says van Deventer.