There are indications that Randstad has entered into the second round of bidding for Panasonic Excel Staff Co., the staffing subsidiary of electronics giant Panasonic, according to Dutch financial services company Kepler Cheuvreax, reports rtlnieuws.nl.

According to Kepler, Randstad could conceivably increase its group revenue by +2.5% and double its market share in Japan with the acquisition of Panasonic Excel.

Panasonic announced in July that is was looking to sell its staffing subsidiary through a bidding process, with the final buyer selected by the end of March 2015.

A notable feature of the Japanese staffing market is that quite a few agencies are owned by larger business conglomerates and sometimes in combination with each other. Owners of staffing firms include auto and electrical manufacturers, insurance companies, logistics firms, technology/ telecom providers, retailers, engineering companies and banks. In the past few years, there has been a trend for these companies to offload their staffing assets

Kepler predicts that, following a successful bid, Randstad could become the fifth largest staffing firm in the Japanese market.

The Japanese staffing market, the second largest in the world after the United States, is currently in a period of transition. The listing of the market’s largest staffing firm, Recruit Holdings, the shrinking working-age population, and the country’s stagnant economy are making, and will continue to make, a significant impact on the labour market.

Staffing Industry Analysts will publish its top staffing firm list for Japan in the coming months.  In the last published ranking (based on 2011 annual revenues), Randstad was ranked 8^th while Panasonic Excel was 10^th.