Proxy Fight
Since 2007, when shareholders began to notice a steady increase of hostile takeovers in Japan, the number of shareholder proposals have been increased, and over 160 shareholder proposals were submitted during the June 2018 proxy season. While shareholders are exercising their rights more aggressively, the 2017 stewardship code has been revised to include a principle that encourages institutional investors to conduct collaborative engagements. Past dichotomy : companies vs a dissident shareholder is expected to evolve into the more complex confrontation : companies vs shareholder group. This confrontation is expected to be seen more in the future, and your firm will need to be ready for engagement with the shareholders.
IR Japan’s Proxy Fight Service
- Analyze the shareholder register and shareholder composition
- Predict and analyze voting of institutional and other investors
- Create strategy up to the shareholders’ meeting
- Negotiate with issuers (or shareholder making the proposal)

- Communicate with individual shareholders (information agent)
- Get shares voted and collect proxies and powers of attorney
- Advise on capital policy and corporate governance
- Select and communicate with white knight
- Media Response
Our Special Features
- From our extensive experience in proxy fights we can anticipate the actions of both parties. We offer services such as planning strategy and behind the scenes negotiations in order to provide you with comprehensive support.
- We have a track record of over 1,000 shareholder identification projects conducted annually and from those results we comprehensively analyze the voting behavior of institutional investors as well as proxy advisors such as ISS and Glass Lewis.
- Due to our expertise as a transfer agent, we have capabilities such as making requests for extraordinary shareholder meetings as well as speedy creation / delivery of documentation related to proxy contests.
- During a proxy fight, we can bring in tens of thousands of votes by making personal visits to shareholders.
- In addition to our advice on capital policy and the creation of a management plan, we can support you during a hostile takeover by finding a white knight and acting as a financial advisor.
Our Proxy Fight Achievements
Our advisory team has won almost all of their cases.
