Investor Relations

On June 7, 2023, a former executive of the Company was indicted by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and charged with factually violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (insider trading regulations). On October 5, 2023, he was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment of one year and six months with a suspended sentence of three years. We find the entire situation deeply regrettable, and we sincerely apologize to our shareholders and other stakeholders for any inconvenience and concerns it caused.

The Group will continue to strive to further raise awareness of compliance among our officers and employees. We will also steadily advance initiatives that we have been promoting since last year to reinforce our information management framework and enhance the supervisory functions of our frameworks for conflict of interest management and risk management. At the same time, we will work together as one group to further strengthen corporate governance.

In Japan’s capital markets, while global institutional funds are returning to Japanese equities in response to the notice issued by the Tokyo Stock Exchange requesting companies with PBR below 1 to improve, movements by activist funds are increasingly intensifying. With shareholder proposals being approved and takeover bids being implemented by operating companies without prior consent, Japan has finally entered an era of major restructuring, and pressure on the management’s control of listed companies is increasing.

As shown in the Group’s key concept, the “Power of Equity®,” while capital risks such as corporate restructuring and business reorganization under external pressure from “shareholders,” which significantly affect the survival and control of listed companies in Japan, are increasing, we will maintain our position as the only independent equity consulting and financial advisory group that essentially offers proxy advisory services and does not take the activist side. We will collect information on global capital market trends through our offices in Tokyo and New York, and leverage both our consulting services related to shareholder voting rights and our M&A advisory services related to management control, while supporting the sustainable growth of listed companies in Japan.

We are sincerely grateful for the continued generous support of our shareholders.