Category: Investment

”Japan’s Coming Shareholder Revolution” (written in 2001！- perspective from the past)

2016-12-02 posted by

Here is an article I wrote in 2001, about the topic in the title. It makes interesting reading some 15 years later. While I may have made correct call… obviously I was a bit too early! It has taken a lot more work, by many persons, for Japan to move as far as it has come in the past years…and the job is not done yet.

“Last month, the Life Insurance Association of Japan published a survey of 561 public companies and 122 institutional investors, focusing on corporate governance and investor relations practices. The results exploded some myths regarding the supposed lack of support for modern corporate governance concepts among institutional shareholders in Japan. Japanese investors are in effect saying: “We want transparency and clear accountability, independent outside directors on boards, and independent board committees.”

The very fact that the survey addressed these topics is a breath of fresh air. Japan’s institutional investor community is weighing in on the emerging debate over corporate governance. It is none too late. Although they should be the most directly motivated constituency, institutional shareholders had been conspicuously quiet. Like most of Japan’s institutional investors, insurance companies have feared a backlash if they took a stance opposed by certain senior executives and politicians. They feared imperiling governmental assistance with industry cleanup, as well as losing insurance and pension business from companies in which they hold stock.

Logic and hard realities are finally coming to the fore. And the investor community will become more vocal as competition heats up in the fund management industry. Investment advisor companies, known as (toshi komon ), compete on the basis of investment returns and prudent decision-making, and do not have other businesses that might fear adverse repercussions.

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Japan’s Productivity Gap – Employment System Re-examined

2016-12-01 posted by

Japan’s GDP per hours worked only amounts to just above 60 percent of the level in the US. In a rapidly ageing society, such a situation is no longer tenable. When the employment to population ratio declines, productivity needs to increase in order to preserve the level of welfare.

Compared to other nations, Japan’s adult population is highly educated. Investment in research and development is also among the highest and corporations have access to an abundant amount of financial capital. The low level of productivity can therefore not be explained by lack of skills, technology or capital. Rather, the available resources are simply not employed in the best possible way.

The deficiencies are being acknowledged by the Japanese government, which is pushing for a “productivity revolution”. Besides the classic approach of promoting new technologies and the recent support for start-ups also undertaken in other countries, the emphasis is on corporate governance reform, more flexible labour markets and a change in working practices (hataraki-kata kaikaku, 働き方改革).

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FT: “Companies fail to buy into Japan’s stewardship code”

2016-10-24 posted by
“Minuscule adoption of code a hit to Abe corporate governance efforts”

“…..Nicholas Benes, one of the architects of Japan’s corporate governance code and head of the Board Director Training Institute of Japan said: “In order for the stewardship code to function as it was intended and be effective as hoped for, the most important part of the ‘investment chain’ that needs to be signed up are the end asset owners — a large proportion of which are corporate pension funds … they are the ones that dictate policy to the fund managers that have signed the code”.

Unless the corporate pension funds — as the biggest customers of the asset managers — are actively demanding better stewardship, fund managers would inevitably cut corners on engagement and proxy voting, Mr Benes added…. ”

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Attribution Analysis of Change in CG Scores 09/2015-09/2016

2016-10-23 posted by

Titlis has updated corporate its governance ratings for 500 major public companies in Japan as of September 2016. The CG scores improved 3/100 pts from a year ago,  steadily but at a slower pace than expectations at the inception of Corporate Governance Code. According to the attribution analysis of the changes in CG scores for a year, the category (factor) of the Board of Directors was the largest contributor and the categories of Incentive of Remuneration, Takeover Defense, and Share Cancellation also inched up scores.

Cross-shareholdings should be considered the effect of share price plunges. The resolution of cross-share holding is extremely slow. We should keep eyes on enhancement of CG.
http://www.titlisgroup.com/mwbhpwp/wp-content/uploads/CGR-attribution20161008.pdf

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”Do Institutional Investors Demand Public Disclosure?” by Stephen A. Karolyi and Andrew Bird

2016-10-17 posted by

”Do institutional investors demand corporate disclosure? A central question in finance and accounting is whether corporate transparency benefits or hurts investors. This issue is complicated by the fact that information provision could affect groups of investors differentially. Public information may crowd out the private information advantage of some institutional investors; alternatively, investors, particularly those following more passive trading strategies, may not be information sensitive. However, even passive institutional investors may benefit from an increase in monitoring by other stakeholders following improved disclosure. Further, regardless of the preferences of institutional investors, whether or not they are able to affect corporate policy on this margin is unclear. This tradeoff is reflected in mixed empirical evidence on the relationship between institutional ownership and corporate disclosure.

To address this tradeoff faced by institutional investors, we analyze the revealed preference for corporate disclosure by institutional investors and the associated impact on the information content of corporate disclosure. Empirically, identifying a causal effect of institutional ownership on corporate disclosure policy is difficult because experimental settings and direct measures of corporate disclosure quantity and characteristics are scarce. We propose a two-part solution to these problems. First, we utilize exogenous changes in institutional ownership around Russell 2000 index reconstitutions in a regression discontinuity design to identify the effect of institutional ownership on corporate disclosure policy. Second, we directly measure the characteristics of corporate disclosure using a novel data set composed of all 8-K filings between 1996 and 2006.

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VIDEO: Global Agenda Debate – ”Abenomics at the Crossroads”

2016-10-04 posted by

”Nearly 4 years have passed since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched the series of economic policies, dubbed “Abenomics”. It is centered on “three arrows”: Bold monetary policy to end the deflation, Flexible fiscal spending to stimulate the economy through large-scale public works projects, and Growth strategy to nurture industries. Today, Abenomics is drawing both praise and criticism. Though the profits of TSE’s First Section-listed companies hit record high for 3 straight years, the economy is still suffering from low growth rate. The unemployment rate dropped as 1 million jobs were created, but inflation-adjusted wages remain low. With the increasing social security costs due to the aging and shrinking population, government debt is ballooning. Can Abenomics revive the Japanese economy? 5 experts from economics, politics and business attend a Global Agenda forum at The University of Tokyo to discuss how the world rates the policies and what it expects from them……”

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”Can Abe’s third arrow reforms benefit investors?”

2016-09-03 posted by

Although the “third arrow” in Japan still has mixed reviews, it can not be denied that with the shift to deliberate improved corporate governance, there is more shareholder involvement in Japanese companies.

In this article, Mr. Naoki Kamiyama of Nikko Asset Management, describes some of the positive changes that now benefiti nvestors.

Read full article here.

Source: FE Trustnet

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The Future of Asset Management, by Jeroen van Oerle and Patrick Lemmens

2016-08-28 posted by

Executive Summary:

 During the past decade, the asset management industry was mostly occupied with regulatory changes dictating costly compliance procedures. The increase in regulatory burden was mainly felt by small asset management firms. In addition to increased regulatory costs, fee pressure has had a large impact on the industry as well.

In the coming years we believe these two forces will remain top of mind, but they have different drivers now. Technology has entered the asset management industry. This will add costs because asset managers have to live up to ever-increasing customer demands regarding immediacy, connectivity and ubiquity. At the same time, this leads to an increase in fee pressure due to growing transparency, comparability and competition from nonfinancial companies. We think the asset management pie is still growing strongly, but not everyone is invited to take a piece.

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“The Rise of Indices Is Changing the Face of Investing”, by Angana Jacob and Sunjiv Mainie, CFA

2016-08-28 posted by

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A confluence of factors including technology, regulation, investor skepticism of manager skill, and fee-consciousness, has favored the rise of index investing. The pace of growth and complexity of change make it difficult for investors and managers to stay informed about these critical trends. In this report, we provide an overview of the rise of indexing, as well as its impact, both realized and potential, on the asset management industry.

The first half of the paper outlines the key trends in indexing and fund management, specifically:

1. Fees are under pressure. Changes in technology and economies of scale have helped commoditize beta;

2. Product scope is continually broadening, with index-based investing making inroads into active management. Smart beta and the growing interest in hedge fund beta paves the way for further growth of passive index funds at the expense of active management; and

3. Technology advances allow for mass customization and an increased focus on outcomes. The outcomes required by individual and institutional market participants are becoming critical—index funds may benefit due to their low cost and heightened transparency.

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”Will better corporate governance boost Japanese equity returns?”

2016-08-05 posted by

Despite the fact that many folks are still pessimistic as to whether corporate governance reforms will bring a surmountable positive change to the Japanese economy, there has been some notable changes as the writer of this article, Louise Dudley, Hermes Global Equities Portfolio Manager, below puts it. It will take time and patience but will be worth it in the end.

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