March 23, 2017
On March 23, 2017, Bloomberg published an article reporting that on March 16, 2017, Dalton Investments delivered a letter to the Board of Directors of Shinsei Bank, Limited, a company held in the accounts of various Dalton clients. The letter makes two corporate engagement proposals: (i) a share buyback; and (ii) implementation of restricted stock compensation. This continues Dalton’s commitment to corporate engagement in Japan, starting with the management buyout of Sun Telephone in 2006, and continuing through Dalton’s acceptance of the Japan Stewardship Code in 2016, and a Dalton team member joining the board of directors of Prestige International also in 2016.
“All stakeholders would benefit,” portfolio manager James Rosenwald III wrote of his buyback proposal. It “would lead to a higher share price over time.” The Japanese government is a large shareholder of the bank, and had a 17 percent stake in March 2016, which dates back to when the bank’s predecessor, Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd., was rescued in the late 1990s.
For the full text of the article, please see here For the full text of the letter, please see here.
Dalton Investments LLC is a value-focused investment management firm with expertise in Asia equities, global equities and fixed income. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with a subsidiary office in Tokyo, Dalton manages $3.1 billion (December 31, 2016) in actively managed long-only and long/short strategies for pensions, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices.