Toshiba says no evidence it pressured Harvard over AGM vote (updated)
17/02/2021 11:19
(Adds details of Toshiba statement)
By Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp 6502.T said on
Wednesday an internal investigation found no evidence it was
involved in any effort to pressure the Harvard University
endowment fund over voting at the company's annual shareholders
meeting (AGM).
The Japanese conglomerate also said it had concluded there
was no need to launch a third-party committee, demanded by its
top shareholder Effissimo Capital Management, to investigate if
the firm's AGM in July was conducted fairly.
Reuters reported that Hiromichi Mizuno, a Japanese
government adviser at the time, had told the Harvard fund that
its vote at Toshiba's AGM could be subject to a regulatory probe
should it vote against the firm's management. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2J4052
When contacted by Toshiba's audit committee, Harvard did not
provide "any specific information as to whether or not there has
been any undue pressure that Toshiba had taken part in," the
Japanese company said.
The audit committee also interviewed Toshiba's CEO and two
other top executives and screened their 30,000 email messages,
and found no direct communication between them and Mizuno, a
spokeswoman said. Mizuno is currently a board member of U.S.
electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O .
The spokeswoman said Toshiba could not comment on whether
anyone else had pressured Harvard, because it was "not in a
position to address issues that the company is not involved in."
Toshiba will hold an extraordinary meeting on March 18 to
vote on separate proposals from two large shareholders -
Effissimo, which wants an independent probe into the AGM, and
U.S. hedge fund Farallon Capital Management, which wants a vote
on the company's investment strategy. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2KI0AU
On Wednesday, Toshiba said it opposed both proposals and
advised other shareholders to vote against them.
Regarding Farallon's proposal, Toshiba said its investment
policy was not subject to approval from shareholders, according
to the Japanese companies act.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki. Editing by Alex Richardson and
Mark Potter)
((Makiko.Yamazaki@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4563-2805;))