Lixil shareholders withdraw extraordinary meeting request, but vow to push for change
09/05/2019 10:02
TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - A group of investors in Japanese
toilet maker Lixil Group 5938.T said on Thursday they had
withdrawn a request for an extraordinary shareholders meeting,
after two top managers bowed to pressure and decided to resign.
But the investors - Marathon Asset Management, Indus
Capital Partners, London-based Polar Capital Holdings Plc
POLR.L and Taiyo Pacific Partners LP - also signalled that
their push for better corporate governance was not over and
called on Lixil to reform.
The investors had in March called for the meeting to seek
the ouster of the chief executive and chief operating officer
from the board, citing a lack of corporate governance. Shortly
after, Lixil CEO Yoichiro Ushioda and COO Hirokazu Yamanashi
said they would resign from the board. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2202UL
The investors said in a statement that they had withdrawn
their request for the extraordinary meeting after the company
confirmed Ushioda would resign from the board as of May 20 and
Yamanashi would do so following June's annual meeting.
"The institutional shareholders believe that the dismissal
of the two directors alone will not entirely improve Lixil's
corporate governance issues," the investors said.
The shareholders said they expected Lixil to take into
account the view of all stakeholders when selecting candidates
for the board at the June meeting.
Lixil confirmed in a statement that the request for a
meeting had been withdrawn and apologised to investors for any
inconvenience. It has previously said it was working to improve
its governance.
The battle at Lixil stems from the abrupt resignation of its
former CEO Kinya Seto in October, and the prompt appointment of
Ushioda, who hails from one of the company's founding families.
Lixil, which also owns the American Standard and Grohe
brands, has emerged as something of a test case for whether
minority shareholders can improve corporate governance in Japan.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2252P0 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2172OU
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by David Dolan and Himani
Sarkar)
((813-6441-1840, junko.fujita@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters
Messaging:junko.fujita.reuters.com@reuters.net;))