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 (June 6)
“The Japanese AGM season will provide rapidly digestible evidence of three things: how empowered activists feel, how awkward the big institutions feel about backing them, and how threatened managements feel by both of those.” The results are unlikely to show real change. “Despite the appearance of change, half of Japanese stocks still trade below book value and carry not just a record value of cash as a proportion of equity, but the largest such ratio in developed markets.”
Tags: Activists, AGM, Appearance, Awkward, Book value, Cash, Change, Empowered, Evidence, Institutions, Japan, Managements, Stocks, Threatened
