Activist Happenings #2
"Why did the Activist cross the road? To get to the other Board..." - ChatGPT
This second issue is starting with Japan as more interesting developments are happening, like old names seeing new activists, corporate activists on the rise and more actions by activists pounding tables for change. We will add these updates to the pinned popular post, Japan Activist Stock Names.
Japan Activist Developments
Anicom Holdings (8715 JP, Market Cap: USD440m, PER: 25.5x PBR: 2.3x, EV/EBITDA: 8.8x, Dividend Yield: 1.0%) : Largest pet insurer in Japan invested by Taiyo Pacific Partners for a couple years. Recently, Dalton Investments of Fuji Media fame disclosed a 5% stake in Anicom, causing the stock to jump c.10%. Dalton has signalled that it would made its proposals known soon. Sharing Michael Fritzell ‘s video and Strategist’s post on Anicom here.
Gungho Online (3755 JP, Market Cap: USD1.0bn, PER: 16.3x PBR: 1.2x, EV/EBITDA: 3.0x, Dividend Yield: 2.2%) : Once Japan’s famed gaming company founded by Taizo Son (the more famous Son’s younger brother) and creator of megahit Puzzles and Dragons mobile game, the company is being targeted by the aggressive Strategic Capital in Jan 2025. Recently, Strategic raised its stake from 7.5% to 8.5% and seek to remove the CEO and improve transparency on management pay packages can better capital allocation and growth strategies.
Shibaura Electronics (6957 JP, Market Cap: USD670m, PER: 21.6x PBR: 2.8x, EV/EBITDA: 9.8x, Dividend Yield: 2.3%) : In a rare case of corporate activism, Taiwan’s Yageo made an unsolicited hostile bid for Shibaura Electronics, Japan’s thermistor and sensor maker, earlier this year. This ruffled a lot of feathers and MinebeaMitsumi was brought in as a white knight. There were multiple rounds of bids and counterbids, cumulating to the current situation where Yageo bid 7,130 yen for Shibaura, but the share price is still only trading at 6,520 yen. The market is therefore implying this cross-border marriage may not happen. Perhaps authoritative parent METI is saying no? Or will the Japanese suitor raise its bid again? The saga continues…
Sumitomo Realty (8830 JP, Market Cap: USD19.3bn, PER: 13.7x PBR: 1.3x, EV/EBITDA: 18.1x, Dividend Yield: 1.4%) : In Aug 2025, Elliott released its public letter calling for Sumitomo Realty to wake up. It’s an awful interesting read if anyone’s interested. Please DM 8percentpa if you want the pdf. Here are the interesting charts in the letter. The right one showing how ROE has declined from 11.3% to 9.1%. While on the left, Sumitomo Realty has no ROE target despite all its peers having theirs.
Toyo Engineering (6330 JP, Market Cap: USD700m, PER: 18.0x PBR: 1.8x, EV/EBITDA: 7.3x, Dividend Yield: 1.5%) : This marine civil engineering company was targeted by Yamauchi No. 10 (Y10), Nintendo’s family office, which also owns Taiyo Pacific Partners mentioned above. After a couple of public spats over the years, Taisei announced in mid August that it was buying Toyo Engineering for USD1.1bn as “white knight”. As such, this ends the saga with activists scoring another one. This author estimates that Y10 made c.70% return. Japan Guru also made money. Here’s his post on Toyo.
As with the previous post, we have the following global section which will also be incorporated into a global list of activist stocks “in play” to be released in time.
Global Developments
BP PLC (BP US, BP UK, Market Cap: USD89.6bn, PER: 12.3x PBR: 1.5x, EV/EBITDA: 4.3x, Dividend Yield 5.5%) : UK’s fallen seventh sister and Deepwater Horizon’s operator targeted by Elliott pushing for increased free cashflow and sale of green assets. Looking at the dismal share price performance, management just have to nod and agree. As such, CEO is fundamentally resetting the firm’s strategy. In recent months, Elliott also catalyzed the change of Chairman at BP, who will come onboard on 1 Sep 2025.
Cracker Barrel (CBRL US, Market Cap: USD1.4bn, PER: 19.4x PBR: 3.0x, EV/EBITDA: 11.4x, Dividend Yield 1.6%) : This restaurant operator blew up part of the internet in August when management decided to go really woke and change its logo, removing Old Timer from its logo (see below). Fans and activists both protested. Even the US President said his piece. Long time activist investor in Cracker Barrel, Sardar Biglari wrote a 120 page damning presentation calling for improvement. That said, this was more sensational news than actionable activist idea. Takeaway: depending on the circumstances, straightforward narratives (like trying to be progressive) can still somehow backfire.
E-Mart (A139480 KR, Market Cap: USD1.4bn, PER: 9.7x PBR: 0.2x, EV/EBITDA: 6.2x, Dividend Yield 2.8%) : E-mart is the largest retailer in Korea suffering from the Korea discount (PBR 0.2x!!). ACT, a minority shareholder advocacy platform, brought together retail investors lobbying against E-mart’s poor performance earlier this year. E-mart, succumbing to public pressure raised its dividends and announced share buyback to boost its share price. In the recent quarterly earnings on 12 Aug, it also managed to cut cost to improve earnings.
Lamb Weston (LW US, Market Cap: USD7.9bn, PER: 19.9x PBR: 4.5x, EV/EBITDA: 16.9x, Dividend Yield 2.6%) : Lamb Weston is a global food processing company specializing frozen potato products. In 2025, it was engaged by Jana Partners which owned c.7% of outstanding shares. Jana pushed for major operational and capital improvements, including advocating for a potential sale of the company. In mid 2025, Jana and Lamb agreed that four of its 13 directors would be nominated by the activist.
Medtronic (MDT US, Market Cap: USD118bn, PER: 16.1x PBR: 2.5x, EV/EBITDA: 13.5x, Dividend Yield 3.1%) : Elliott’s involvement in this global medical device giant was announced last month after “constructive dialogue”. It was reported that Elliott’s involvement likely resulted in the board appointments of two independent directors and the spinoff of Medtronic’s diabetes business. Share price reaction was muted though.
Activist Newsletters / Podcasts / Videos / Interesting Stuff
Activism Back In Time : Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS) discussed how it represented minority shareholders to fight for minority rights in various high profile cases, such as the 1999 CLOB Saga, China Aviation Oil scandal, NatSteel and Hyflux. This is a fascinating video!
Charles Schwab’s informative basic video on shareholder activism below: What Are Activist Investors. Worth watching for a quick digest!
Shareholder Primacy : Amazing podcasters, awaiting their newest update.
Herbert Smith FreeHills Kramer’s podcast series simply called Shareholder Activism. Similarly, awaiting their newest update.
AVI Japan Opportunity Trust : AVI’s London listed vehicle that publicly discloses their activist stocks. Here’s their latest newsletter.
Activist ETFs : Learnt more about activist ETFs from ChatGPT. Looks like the first one below Invesco Buyback Achievers (PKW) is worth exploring since it managed to outperform SPY!
The Fun Section
This last section has nothing to do with activist stock ideas, it’s just funny stuff found on X. Enjoy!
Dividend Hero at https://dividend-wealth.com/
MicroCapClub on negative gross margin below. Always loved this iconic meme pic.
Substacker Kris on current state of the market:
That’s it folks! Hope you enjoyed it.
Huat Ah!
This post does not constitute investment advice and should not be deemed to be an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments.
Great post!