Activist investor Daniel Loeb¡¯s Third Point LLC said it acquired a stake in Japan¡¯s second-largest grocery and retail group Seven & i Holdings Co. and proposed a spinoff of its supermarket unit.
The New York-based company ¡°continued to add to¡± its investment in Seven & i, it said in a letter to investors Friday, without disclosing how large of a stake it holds. It also proposed the Japanese company¡¯s unit Ito-Yokado Co., which has ¡°notable record of underperformance,¡± should be spun off and restructured as a standalone company.
Loeb¡¯s investments come as he has extolled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s efforts to improve corporate governance, saying the move opens the way for activist investors to gain by helping improve the way companies deploy cash. The Seven & i investment is at least Loeb¡¯s fifth in two years in Japan.
¡°Shareholders have suffered from the subsidization of Ito-Yokado for so long that Seven & i is emerging as one of the most crucial tests for the success of corporate governance reform in Japan,¡± Third Point said in the letter.
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