Shareholders of Japanese oil wholesaler Cosmo Energy Holdings Co. on Thursday approved a company proposal to implement an anti-takeover measure in the face of a large-scale share purchase by an activist shareholder group.
The measure, endorsed at the firm's annual shareholders' meeting in Tokyo, addresses its concern that City Index Eleventh Co., a group led by prominent investor Yoshiaki Murakami, may continue to add to its holdings after buying shares equivalent to about 20 percent of the company.
The so-called poison pill step will allow the company to allot share acquisition rights to its shareholders excluding City Index Eleventh to lower the activist group's share of ownership if it acquires an additional stake without following procedures set by Cosmo Energy.
"It will bring disadvantages to other investors if City Index increases its stake without showing what management policy they are demanding specifically," Cosmo Energy President Shigeru Yamada said at the shareholder meeting.
Murakami, a former industry ministry official, is a veteran activist investor in Japan who has been demanding management reforms aggressively at major Japanese companies.
He was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of insider trading in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. shares, and later convicted. His fund called the Murakami Fund was disbanded.
