Companies

Toshiba board gains two directors from activist hedge funds

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Shareholders enter the venue of Toshiba’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.

Reuters

13:03 JST, June 28, 2022

TOKYO (Reuters) — Toshiba Corp 6502.T shareholders endorsed two board directors from activist hedge fund investors at its annual general meeting on Tuesday – an inclusion that is expected to provide added momentum to its exploration of potential buyout deals.

Nabeel Bhanji, a senior portfolio manager at Elliott Management, and Eijiro Imai, managing director at Farallon Capital Management were elected, as was Akihiro Watanabe, an executive from boutique U.S. investment bank Houlihan Lokey, who becomes chairman of its board.

All in all, seven new board directors were appointed and six were reappointed.

The appointments of Bhanji and Imai were not without controversy with one board member publicly expressing concern that the board may become too skewed towards the input of activist investors.