BBC (December 19)
“Once a poster boy for Japan’s dominance in electronics—known as Japan Inc—the company has delisted, ending a 74-year history with Tokyo’s stock exchange.” The reasons for “such a spectacular fall from grace” are numerous and the challenge for Japan Investment Corp (JIC), which led a group of investors in purchasing the remnants for $14 billion, is immense. While JIC has successfully revived other failing businesses, “Toshiba is a much bigger company and the stakes are high.”
Tags: $14 billion, Challenge, Delisted, Dominance, Electronics, Failing businesses, Fall, Japan Inc., JIC Investors, Revived, Stakes, Toshiba, TSE
Reuters (July 19)
“The TOPIX is up 20% this year and trading near a multi-decade high. Some of the drivers are profound. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is asking companies whose shares trade below book value to disclose plans to enhance their market worth, spurring hopes of share buybacks. And the welcome return of inflation could prompt Japanese companies to invest more and pay higher wages, which would in turn prop up consumer spending.”
Tags: Book value, Buybacks, Drivers, Enhance, High, Inflation, Invest, Japanese companies, Market worth, Shares, Topix, TSE, Wages
Financial Times (April 4)
The Tokyo Stock Exchange received its “biggest overhaul in 60 years,” and left many unimpressed. “The exchange is now divided into three sections—prime, standard and growth,” but “domestic and global investors said the streamlining effort was a squandered opportunity.” Prime section market cap was set at only ¥10 billion while investors had hoped for ¥100 billion. Several hundred companies that didn’t make even that low bar were still allowed exceptional entry. “To widespread disappointment, the reshuffle has not significantly raised the bar for membership, resulting in 1,839 companies qualifying for the prime section.”
Tags: Disappointment, Domestic, Global, Growth, Investors, Overhaul, Prime, Squandered Market cap, Standard, Streamlining, TSE, Unimpressed
Bloomberg (October 2)
For an entire trading day, a “piece of hardware took down Japan’s $6-trillion stock market,” marking the longest shutdown “since the exchange switched to a fully electronic trading system in 1999.” Besides drawing criticism, the malfunction “shone a spotlight on a lesser-discussed vulnerability in the world’s financial plumbing — not software or security risks but the danger when one of hundreds of pieces of hardware that make up a trading system decides to give up the ghost.”
Tags: Danger, Financial plumbing, Hardware, Japan, Malfunction, Security risks, Shutdown, Software, Stock market, Trading, TSE, Vulnerability
Financial Times (September 8)
“Dealmakers salivate over Japan Inc succession survey,” reads the headline. A survey on corporate succession by Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is being conducted on all first and second section TSE listed companies. The survey “is primarily an attempt to establish just how seriously Japan’s chief executives are taking the country’s corporate governance code a year after it was laid down,” but it may also reveal firms that, lacking a suitable successor, are open to acquisition by foreign companies.
Tags: Acquisition, Dealmakers, Governance, Japan Inc., METI, Succession, Survey, TSE
Bloomberg (November 19)
“As the rest of the world looks for ways to rein in high-frequency trading, Japan is making a mistake by letting it expand unchecked.” High-speed trading accounted for nearly half of TSE trading last year, but officials have done little to examine or regulate high-frequency trading. In contrast, stricter rules are being implemented overseas in Europe, the U.S. and even China.
Euromoney (July Issue)
Suntory Beverage “successfully completed an almost $4 billion IPO, Asia’s largest this year” by listing on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. “Encouragingly for the wider market, Suntory’s story is not unique. In Japan, the opening–day share prices for more that 20 recent IPOs have exceeded their pre-market fixed prices as retail investors pile into companies in the firm belief that Japan’s growth path is assured. In fact, with the much-reported liquidity problems in China, Japan is emerging as something of a bright spot in Asia at exactly the right time.”
Tags: Asia, China, IPO, Japan, Liquidity, Retail investors, Share price, Suntory Beverage, TSE
Financial Times (March 17)
“Net buying of Japanese equities by overseas investors amounted to slightly more than Y1tn in the first week of March – the highest weekly figure in Tokyo Stock Exchange records going back to 1982.” IPOs have also shot to top position in Tokyo and now rank second globally. “As investors have warmed to the pro-growth policies of Shinzo Abe, prime minister, since the beginning of January, newcomers to Japan’s markets have raised Y181bn ($1.9bn) – more than issuers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia combined.”
Bloomberg (August 25)
“The Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc.’s purchase of its Osaka rival is off to a rocky start.” Shares in the “Osaka exchange plunged by a record 16 percent yesterday amid speculation the merger will hurt profit.” Many of the concerns center on trading disruptions at the larger exchange, for which executives had their pay docked following a reprimand by the Financial Services Agency.
Tags: FSA, Merger, OSE, Share price, Trading glitches, TSE
Bloomberg (April 20)
“The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s worst breakdown in six years has forced a rethink of the role alternative trading platforms play in ensuring that shares of some of the world’s biggest companies keep changing hands.” A February 2 computer glitch halted trading on many of the TSE’s biggest stocks. In the future, the Japan Securities Dealers Association will allow alternative trading platforms such as Chi-X Japan and SBI Japannext to continue trading if the TSE suffers another disruption. This will ensure that trading is possible even when the TSE breaks down.
“The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s worst breakdown in six years has forced a rethink of the role alternative trading platforms play in ensuring that shares of some of the world’s biggest companies keep changing hands.” A February 2 computer glitch halted trading on many of the TSE’s biggest stocks. In the future, the Japan Securities Dealers Association will allow alternative trading platforms such as Chi-X Japan and SBI Japannext to continue trading if the TSE suffers another disruption. This will ensure that trading is possible even when the TSE breaks down.
Tags: Chi-X Japan, Exchange, JSDA, SBI Japannext, Trading, TSE
