The densely packed Japanese proxy voting season promises to be even more frantic than usual this year. According to a report in the Nikkei newspaper on 4 May, the number of shareholder proposals submitted to listed companies are likely to roughly double in number from 19 cases last year, to reach a record high this year.
More than half of the proposals are from investment managers invested in corporate Japan, according to a spokesman for Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo. For example, American fund Steel Partners is urging big increases in dividend payments by several firms in which they are invested. The high profile but indigenous alternative investment manager Sparx Group, the largest shareholder in Pentax Corporation, is encouraging Pentax to select directors in favour of a merger with Hoya.
“The Nikkei newspaper speculates that this trend is based on the continuous unwinding of cross-holdings,” says the Mizuho spokesman. “That is making shareholders more influential in business decision-making by listed companies in Japan.”