Tag: Benes

Nicholas Benes: Public Comment on Revision of the Stewardship Code

2020-01-06 posted by

1) Pension Funds
2) Other Types of Investors
3) “ESG Factors”
4) Debt Instruments

1) Pension Funds

The proposed revisions to the Stewardship Code do not make it clear enough exactly how corporate pension funds, or smaller pension funds of any type, can sign the Code and comply with it without bearing excessive cost, work, or confusion.  Because this is not sufficiently clear at present, to date only an extremely small number of the defined-benefit pension funds at listed non-financial companies in Japan have signed the Code (only about 10, out of a total of 700 or more such funds). As a result, a rather odd situation exists in that most Japanese companies claim to care for their employees deeply, but judging from their actions, do not seem to care much about employees’ investments or post-retirement quality of life – or even, to care about preserving shareholder value by reducing the cash infusions needed to keep their pension plan fully funded. This makes a mockery of the language in the Corporate Governance Code about stewardship (Principle 2.6 企業年金のアセットオーナーとしての機能発揮）, and of the Stewardship Code itself.

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BDTI Update to Supporters, June 2018

2018-06-17 posted by

Notes: (1) On this page (at top right), you can sign up to receive our English Newsletter; (2) Sign up to receive the (separate) Japanese Newsletter here; (3) Anyone can support the “SEO” of our web site simply by mentioning BDTI on any web page with a link to this page; (4) For details about the chart, see the overview materials.

” Dear Supporter:   I am writing to update you, and to respectfully ask you or your institution to make a donation of 300,000 Yen or more this year, either as a Sustaining Donor or as a Corporate Participating Member. (As explained below in section 5, the latter category now allows donors which are investing institutions to receive 40% discounts on all BDTI courses/seminars that are open to the public, and to share these discounts with companies in their portfolio.)

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Nicholas Benes : 「Whither Governance in Japan? Part 2- How the Code Is Intended to Function」

2016-09-08 posted by

Executive Summary To me – the guy who proposed the code –  the most important logic of Japan’s corporate governance code is: Japan needs committees even more than other countries, because there are so few outside directors to set the base for “committees”, Japanese companies must first appoint “multiple” independent directors Japan needs any and […]

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Bloomberg: ”The Tokyo Whale Is Quietly Buying Up Huge Stakes in Japan Inc.”

2016-04-27 posted by

“…. Still, the longer the BOJ’s buying persists, the bigger the risk that market prices will detach from fundamentals. Assuming Goldman Sachs’s prediction for more stimulus proves correct, the central bank could end up owning a quarter of Mitsumi Electric Co., a supplier to Apple Inc., and 21 percent of Fast Retailing by the end of 2017, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

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WSJ (Benes) – ”Japan’s Pension Funds Could Help Curb Cash Hoarding”

2016-04-01 posted by
”Almost three years after I first proposed in these pages that Japan adopt a governance code to raise productivity, the country now not only has a Corporate Governance Code but also a Stewardship Code for institutional investors. There has since been much discussion, and even exhortation by the government, about the urgent need to change the corporate mindset, engage with investors and increase companies’ return on equity. These are all major achievements. But when it comes to increasing corporate profitability through reinvesting in the real economy, there is still much progress to be made.

Japanese companies continue to sit on a mountain of excess cash. According to Japan’s Ministry of Finance, this mountain actually grew to $1.5 trillion in 2015 from $1.4 trillion in 2011, despite substantial increases in dividends and stock buybacks. During that same period, capital expenditure shrank by more than half……….”

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FT: “Sharp Warns on Ability to Stay Afloat after $1.9bn Loss”

2015-05-14 posted by

BDTI’s Representative Director Nicholas Benes is quoted in his article about Sharp in the Financial Times this morning. Excerpts:　　

Sharp, a century old stalwart of corporate Japan, has unveiled an annual loss of $1.9bn and warned of “material uncertainty” about its ability to stay in business, less than three years after facing a similar crisis of survival.

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