FirstFT: Activist Elliott builds stake in Japanese conglomerate

Good morning. The activist fund Elliott Administration has turn out to be one of many largest shareholders of Dai Nippon Printing — a 146-year-old Japanese conglomerate with an enormous however unheralded world share in parts of electrical automobile batteries and smartphone screens.

The stakebuilding provides to solely a handful of investments that Elliott has beforehand made in Japan — with Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group and Toshiba essentially the most outstanding. Individuals near the fund characterised it as an experiment in extracting trapped worth that would pave the best way for considerably extra exercise.

Elliott has quietly elevated its funding in DNP over the previous few months, in line with folks aware of the scenario, and now holds a stake of rather less than 5 per cent price about $300mn, making it the third-largest exterior shareholder.

Individuals near DNP stated Elliott’s preliminary engagement with the corporate, which has a market capitalisation of $6.3bn and at present trades the place it did 20 years in the past, has targeted on a collection of calls for: a extra aggressive share buyback scheme, the sale of its sprawling actual property holdings and an accelerated disposal of its in depth portfolio of shares in different Japanese corporations.

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The day forward

Inflation figures Inflation updates are due from the UK, Australia, Spain, Sweden and Singapore. Japan will even report its Shopper Value Index (CPI) price of residing measure. Use our world inflation tracker to see how your nation compares on rising costs.

Tesla earnings Will probably be one other week for Elon Musk watchers (identical to each different week) with Tesla reporting fourth quarter figures. The corporate has been chopping costs of its electrical autos to bolster demand within the US and Europe.

• 🎧 Pay attention: In a current episode of the Behind the Cash podcast, the FT’s Richard Waters solutions whether or not Tesla’s golden age of progress is over.

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Take a break from the information

Japanese eyewear stays unmatched. It makes use of components from the previous, refashioned into one thing by fashionable means, designed for the long run. We learn the way the nation’s glasses are made.