In today’s briefing:
- Rigaku IPO Lockup – Large PE Investors Can Still Break Even
- [Japan Activism] – Strategic Capital Shareholder Proposals to WAKITA (8125) And Their Response
- Money Forward: Business Model Begins to Breakdown
- Tokyu Revamps Retail Business
- Activist Investors Will Focus Their Approach More on Whole Assets that Aren’t Being Used Effectively
Rigaku IPO Lockup – Large PE Investors Can Still Break Even
- Rigaku Holdings (268A JP) raised around US$750m in its Japan IPO in October 2024. The lockup on its pre-IPO investors is set to expire soon.
- Rigaku engages in developing, manufacturing, sales and servicing scientific instruments specializing in X-ray technologies.
- In this note, we will talk about the lockup dynamics and possible placement.
[Japan Activism] – Strategic Capital Shareholder Proposals to WAKITA (8125) And Their Response
- Tsuyoshi Maruki’s Strategic Capital has gone after a number of cash-rich companies in the past. This is Year 5 going after Wakita & Co Ltd (8125 JP).
- Wakita is cash-rich, and has been for years, but it is also asset-rich. The former CEO, after he retired, decided he wanted to play in real estate.
- At the end of last month, Strategic Capital made proposals (English, Japanese) to Wakita. Again. Today, the company responded (only in Japanese). Time for more.
Money Forward: Business Model Begins to Breakdown
- Money Forward (3994 JP) MF’s recent earnings was no surprise to us as we continued to highlight that the company’s business model is far inferior to its counterpart freee.
- The last 2-3 quarterly results have made that discrepancy clear and MF’s non-BO SaaS businesses are only dead weight and have helped conceal weaknesses of its business model.
- MF’s share price is down 19.3% YTD and think the market has finally come to terms that MF is losing ground whereas freee has managed to turn around its profitability.
Tokyu Revamps Retail Business
- Tokyu may have just sold off its Tokyu Plaza building in Ginza but it is continuing to invest in retail.
- In particular, it will focus on newand upgraded retail facilities along the main Tokyu railway lines over the next decade,
- To make this happen and improve efficiency, it will merge its retail businesses into a more efficient, centralised core this summer.
Activist Investors Will Focus Their Approach More on Whole Assets that Aren’t Being Used Effectively
- It’ll be interesting on whether shareholder proposals will be passed in companies with larger market capitalization and larger institutional investor ownership, which will be the main battleground for activist investors.
- There are so many companies that are not creating the value they should be, it is no wonder that any company becomes a target for activist investors.
- As activist funds’ AUM grows, their approach is likely to focus more on overall assets that are not being used effectively, such as cash, real estate, equities, and non-core businesses.
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