Irish Company Global Shares Opens Tokyo Branch

Global Shares, an Irish company and global provider of equity compensation software solutions, has announced the official opening of its new Tokyo headquarters.

Enterprise Ireland supported the expansion into the Asia Pacific for the 'FinTech Company of the Year', as awarded by Deloitte.

The new base will manage the firm's business growth in Japan, further scaling its operations into the Asia Pacific region, following its expansion into Beijing and Hong Kong last year.

Established in West Cork, Ireland, in 2005, over the past decade Global Shares has experienced dramatic growth, having developed a highly innovative, cloud-based, global technology platform for private and public companies of all sizes to manage their global employee share plans. The software enables seamless equity administration to clients with employees across multi jurisdictions, time zones, currencies and languages. Global Shares is a MiFID and FINRA/SEC regulated firm, and its service offering also includes share-dealing, brokerage, financial reporting, global compliance and expert support.

Today more than 300 blue-chip companies with employees in 100 countries use Global Shares to operate their employee share plans. Clients include pharmaceutical powerhouse GSK, Italian financial services firm Generali, the US's largest privately-held corporation Cargill and British multinational enterprise software company Sage Group.

The Global Shares' Tokyo office is in the prestigious Marunouchi area of the city, close to the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Train Station, and will be led by Mr. Wada Elisha as Client Relationship Manager working with two support staff. By the end of 2019, Global Shares will have 40 staff based in Asia. Total employee numbers have risen from 68 staff in 2015, to 240 staff currently, and a projected 450+ staff within four years. The new Tokyo office is the 11th Global Shares office, including New York, Clonakilty (HQ), Cork, London, Edinburgh, Munich, Madrid and Lisbon.

Speaking at the Global Shares' Tokyo office today, during her visit to Japan to mark the St. Patrick's Day Festival, The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD said:

"I am delighted to announce the official opening of Global Shares new office in Tokyo and wish to warmly congratulate John Meehan and the Global Shares team involved in what is a very positive development for the company. Global Shares is an important and growing regional employer in Clonakilty, West Cork with its success grounded on its highly innovative and proprietary financial technology platform, coupled with excellence in customer deployment and support."

Enterprise Ireland's Pat O' Riordan, Director Japan & Korea, added: "Japan is a globally significant market that is ripe for and welcoming of world class Irish innovation. Global Shares approach to entering the Japanese market has been exemplary with its carefully planned and committed approach already yielding important customer wins, reflective of the company's ambition to scale its business significantly in the Asia Pacific region."



(JG/CM)