Orix Corporation (オリックス株式会社, Orikkusu Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 8591, OSE: 8591, NYSE: IX) is a financial services group established 17 April 1964 as Orient Leasing Co., Ltd.. The company's name was changed to Orix Corporation in 1989. It has headquarters in both Minato, Tokyo, Japan and Osaka, Japan, and they are the majority owners of the Orix Buffaloes baseball team in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Orix offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment and retail banking, commodities funds and securities brokering. In addition to expanding its offerings, Orix has also expanded globally, offering financial services in North America, Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa. Divisions include Japan-based Orix Auto Leasing Corporation, which operates in other countries through subsidiaries such as Orix Auto Leasing (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
In 2006, Orix USA acquired a majority stake in the investment bank Houlihan Lokey to address the growing international demand for middle-market investment banking services. Houlihan Lokey opened offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo in 2007.
As of 2007, Orix was Japan's largest leasing and leading diversified financial services conglomerate with assets in excess of US$ 69 billion and subsidiaries & associates in 24 countries worldwide.
In early 2009, Orix management advised employees worldwide that due to suffering a series of losses because of the economic downturn, a retrenchment of 10% of its employees would occur. In turn this resulted in the termination of approx 600 individuals employment contracts.