Investment Fund Calls for Shareholder Meeting for Fujitec

Japanese elevator maker Fujitec will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting in February after a Hong Kong investment fund called for a vote to replace all of the company’s outside directors, Nikkei Asia reports. Oasis Management has accused Fujitec’s founding family — the Uchiyama family, which holds a roughly 6% stake in the company — of abusing its control over the company. At least 40 large institutional investors had agreed “that a future for Fujitec with Takakazu Uchiyama at the helm was untenable,” Oasis said in a recent open letter, referring to Fujitec’s chairman, a founding family member. Oasis, which holds a 16.5% stake in Fujitec and has launched several activist investor campaigns in Japan, said it is putting forward six proposals, including a slate of “independent, highly experienced and diverse directors.” Overseas investors have a combined stake of more than 40%. Oasis’ call for an extraordinary shareholders meeting follows its accusations against the founding family before this year’s annual general meeting in June. In May, the fund published details of what it called “concerning transactions” between Fujitec and members of the Uchiyama family. Fujitec said an internal probe found no legal or governance problems associated with the transactions, but the elevator maker withdrew its proposal to reappoint Takakazu Uchiyama, then president of Fujitec, to the company’s board shortly before the shareholder vote