Japan is the new Disneyland of global activism

Mitsui Fudosan Co

07/02/2024 02:47

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Una Galani
       MUMBAI, Feb 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Elliott wants
$24 bln property giant Mitsui Fudosan to offload its stake in
the Tokyo theme park operator and buy back shares. Like many of
his peers, Mitsui's CEO is a convert to shareholder religion.
The new challenge for activists is getting company bosses to be
more devout.
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @ugalani on Twitter
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    Elliott Management is calling for Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s
biggest property group, to sell non-core assets and launch a
share buyback to improve its returns, people familiar with the
situation told Breakingviews.
    The U.S. activist fund owns around 2.5% of Mitsui, the
Financial Times said on Feb. 5. Elliott wants the company to
sell its stake in Oriental Land and to launch a 1 trillion yen
($6.8 billion) share buyback, the report added. Oriental runs
Tokyo Disneyland.

 (Editing by Robyn Mak and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  GALANI/   
una.galani@thomsonreuters.com;  Reuters Messaging:
una.galani.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))