TOKYO — The Harvard University endowment fund, a major Toshiba shareholder, sold its shares in the company as of March, Nikkei has learned.
They were acquired by an “activist investor” in Singapore that voted against Toshiba President Nobuaki Kurumatani and others at the 2020 shareholders meeting. Tensions between shareholders and the current management team may now rise even higher.
The Harvard fund sold its Toshiba shares to 3D Investment Partners, a Singapore-based asset management company.
According to a large shareholding report filed by 3D with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau on April 2, the company acquired 4.7% of Toshiba’s shares off the market on March 29. The seller was not disclosed. According to multiple people familiar with the matter, 3D acquired the Toshiba shares from the Harvard fund.
3D was Toshiba’s fifth-largest shareholder as of May 2020. With this recent purchase, 3D will hold a 7.2% stake in the Japanese company, making it the second-largest shareholder. The largest shareholder remains Effissimo Capital Management, another Singaporean investment fund, which owns 9.9% of Toshiba. Effissimo is locked in an overt conflict with the current management team.
The reappointment of Toshiba President Nobuaki Kurumatani has become the focus of the 2021 annual shareholders meeting. (Photo by Taro Yokosawa)
3D has also been at odds with Toshiba over its capital policies and leadership appointments. At the 2020 shareholders meeting, it voted against the proposal to elect Kurumatani as president.
With opposition from 3D and others, only 57.96% of shareholders supported Kurumatani’s appointment. The Harvard fund did not exercise its voting right at the shareholders meeting.
3D later demanded that Toshiba investigate the possibility that some voting rights were not handled properly, although the results of the shareholders meeting remained the same. It was later revealed that Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which managed the shareholders meeting, mishandled some of the voting rights.
Reuters has reported that Hiromichi Mizuno, a Japanese government adviser at the time, had told the Harvard fund that its vote at the meeting could be subject to a regulatory probe if it voted against the company’s management. Toshiba said in February that an internal investigation had found no evidence it was involved in any effort to pressure the Harvard fund over voting at the meeting, Reuters said.
CVC Capital Partners, a British investment fund, has put forward a proposal to take Toshiba private. The plan calls for a takeover bid in July to delist Toshiba’s shares. As it becomes an increasingly influential shareholder, 3D’s view of CVC’s proposed acquisition will become an important point of focus.
