Oasis Management Company, a Hong-Kong based international hedge fund management firm, recently announced that it had acquired additional shares in major Japanese anime, manga and game publisher Kadokawa. According to an amended report submitted to the Ministry of Finance on March 30, Oasis has increased its number of equities from over 17.6 million to over 20.5 million, with its ownership percentage rising from 11.85% to 13.76%, making it Kadokawa’s largest shareholder (Source: GameBiz).
This marks the third time this month that Oasis significantly raised its stake in Kadokawa. On March 19, it was announced that the activist investor had acquired a 8.86% stake in Kadokawa, becoming a “large shareholder” of the company (over 5% ownership). Less than a week later, the fund bought even more shares, bumping their ownership percentage up to 10%. On March 26, it was revealed that Oasis acquired another big portion of Kadokawa’s shares, getting an 11.85% stake in total and exceeding Sony’s 10.09% stake.
While Oasis holds a 13.76% stake in Kadokawa at the time of writing, it is still unclear how the activist investor will influence the company’s leadership down the line. The investor stated that the purpose of this acquisition is “portfolio investment” and “important proposal activities” in the interest of “protecting shareholder value,” though nothing specific has been announced so far.
In light of the recent series of acquisitions, Japanese news outlet Sankei Shimbun asked Kadokawa about how Oasis becoming their biggest shareholder would impact their business in the long run. “Regarding the contents or existence of discussion with individual shareholders, it’s been our policy to refrain from commenting on such matters. While our administrative policies are not influenced by actions of individual shareholders, we intend to keep making steady efforts that will help contribute to our continuous growth,” Kadokawa’s representatives told Sankei.
Since Kadokawa has a general shareholders meeting scheduled for June this year, it will be a few months until we get to hear what propositions Oasis has for it. However, considering the activist fund’s rather aggressive series of investments in the past month (and a somewhat notorious track record when it comes to other Japanese corporations), it is natural that some may be concerned about how this could affect Kadokawa’s management in the long run.
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