Oasis Management Company, a Hong-Kong based international hedge fund management firm, has acquired a large number of shares in major Japanese anime, manga and game publisher Kadokawa, as reported by GameBiz.
According to a report submitted to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau on March 19, after buying over 13 million shares, Oasis has acquired an 8.86% stake in Kadokawa, exceeding the 5% threshold for “large shareholders.” The purpose of Oasis’s acquisition of shares is described as “portfolio investment”, as well as “important proposal activities.”
Oasis Management Company is known to be an activist investor. Not to be confused with political activism, the term refers to companies that seek to buy significant stakes in companies in order to influence how they are managed, usually with the purpose of increasing shareholder returns. Oasis has recently shown interest in (and exerted pressure over) several major Japanese companies, including Nidec and Kao Corporation. In the game industry, the fund also owns a stake in Nintendo, which it famously urged to “immediately enter the mobile market” back in 2014.
When it comes to Kadokawa, the aforementioned “important proposals” by Oasis are described as being in the interest of “protecting shareholder value,” although nothing specific has been announced so far. Besides being a major publisher of manga and light novels, Kadokawa is also the parent company of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware and owner of several domestic anime studios. It remains to be seen whether and in what ways Oasis will seek to influence the company’s leadership.
Sony to become Kadokawa’s largest shareholder in new co-operative business alliance
