HK hedge fund seeks US$4b payout from Kyocera

Tokyo

A HONG Kong hedge fund stepped up its pressure on Kyocera Corp, calling on the Japanese electronics maker to pay back more than US$4 billion to investors.

Kyocera should sell its 1.02 trillion yen (S$11.7 billion) stake in phone carrier KDDI Corp and give about half the proceeds to stock owners including his fund, Seth Fischer, chief investment officer at Oasis Management, said. Kyocera is the largest shareholder in KDDI and shares the same founder, Buddhist priest and billionaire Kazuo Inamori. Having such a large investment is equivalent to years of profits and is too risky, according to Mr Fischer.

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to increase dialogue between investors and management and reduce so-called cross-shareholdings, funds such as Oasis are stepping in to test whether companies are prepared to heed this advice. Mr Fischer won't find an ally in Kyocera chairman emeritus Mr Inamori, who told Bloomberg last month that the investment in KDDI was a reserve against hard times…