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
Financial Times (August 15)
“US boardrooms are older, more male and filled with longer-serving directors than their European counterparts…. Directors of large and midsize US companies are four years older, on average, than European directors and almost twice as likely to be over the age of 65.”
Bloomberg (May 10)
Tsuyoshi Maruki, the founder of Tokyo-based Strategic Capital Inc., “stands out like a lone wolf in Japan, where societal intolerance for aggressive shareholder campaigns has spurred a breed of friendly activists.” When persuasion fails, Maruki “turns to techniques that include banding with other investors to oust management and filing lawsuits to overhaul corporate practices in order to boost returns for his 9.7 billion yen ($90 million) fund.” Committed to improving corporate governance in Japan, Maruki is convinced his aggressive stance works.
Tags: Aggressive, Friendly activists, Governance, Investors, Japan, Lawsuits, Management, Maruki, Persuasion, Shareholder, Strategic Capital, Tokyo
Institutional Investor (September Issue)
“The combination of collapsing crude oil prices, wild currency swings and heightened governance scrutiny has created a challenging environment for many of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds”.
Bloomberg (July 30)
Positive governance may finally be transforming corporate Japan. “Waves of activist investors—both Japanese and non-Japanese—tried to unlock the country’s riches. They failed. But now they’re spurred on by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who’s taking aim at the cozy way Japan does business as part of his make-or-break Abenomics plan to reinvigorate the stagnant economy. Attitudes are changing at last.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Activist investors, Business, Economy, Governance, Japan
The Economist (June 6)
“At last Japan has introduced corporate-governance reforms that will make a difference.” It will be neither a sudden or complete transformation. “Japan’s corporate-governance revolution has had many false dawns.” Nevertheless, there are finally “reasons to think that real change is under way.”
Tags: False dawns, Governance, Japan, Real change, Reforms, Transformation
Wall Street Journal (June 3)
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to restart productivity growth and unlock value in Japanese companies is toppling the shibboleths of Japan Inc.” His corporate governance reforms seem to mark “a turning point. Japan’s corporate chieftains must realize that as Japan’s population ages, it will draw down savings. That means companies need to attract foreign capital and go abroad to seek new markets. Both require global best practices of corporate governance.”
Tags: Abe, Foreign capital, Global best practices, Governance, Growth, Japan, Markets, Population, Productivity
Bloomberg (May 31)
“Recent scandals at Takata (deadly airbags) and Toshiba (dodgy accounting), and Sharp’s ongoing angling for a government rescue when it should be shedding unprofitable businesses, are a reminder of how far Japan still needs to go.” Despite recent governance reforms, “Japan remains 30 years behind its peers in how its companies are run. Corporate Japan still indulges in cross-shareholdings and permits itself male-dominated boards, and the country’s timid media does little to hold it to account.” Still, progress is being made. “Some companies are starting to display the behavior Abe wants, and for which” overseas fund managers have “been agitating.”
Tags: Abe, Accounting, Airbags, ata, Boards, Cross-shareholdings, Fund managers, Governance, Japan, Media, Reforms, Sharp, Toshiba, Unprofitable
Wall Street Journal (May 28)
JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon told the “the truth about proxy advisory firms” when he urged investors not to blindly follow their guidance on corporate governance and shareholder votes. Firms like Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. “have enjoyed far too much influence over companies they don’t own and been subject to far too little scrutiny given their potential conflicts of interest.”
Tags: CEO, Conflicts, Glass Lewis, Governance, Guidance, Influence, Investors, ISS, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan, Proxy advisory firms, Shareholders, Votes
The Economist (February 7)
“Despite their flaws and excesses, activists are a force for good.” These investors “are often loathed by public-company bosses for their belligerence and opportunism. But the bosses are wrong. Activists are in fact the public company’s unlikely saviours.” Activist investors “fill a governance void that afflicts today’s public companies,” which are increasingly held by passive investors. They wake “lazy investors” up with their activist complaints, making “it harder for investors to stay on the sidelines.”
Tags: Activists, Excesses, Flaws, Governance, Investors, Opportunism, Passive investors
