J-Power, the Japanese power supplier, has become the latest company to face pressure from The Children’s Investment Fund, the activist hedge fund that has targeted ABN Amro. TCI, a UK-based fund, which is the largest shareholder in J-Power, has written to Japan’s recently privatised electricity wholesaler to request it more than treble its dividend. It has asked that a proposal to raise the dividend for the year ending March 31 to Y100 per share, rather than Y30, be put to a vote at the June general shareholders’ meeting. The proposal comes as TCI, which has invested about $1bn in J-Power, raised its stake to 9.9 per cent and indicated it intended to take a more activist stance. TCI has changed the purpose of its holding in its filing with the Japanese regulator, from one of “pure investment” to an “investment to receive a capital return as a shareholder and submit important proposals to members of the board or to the annual shareholders’ meeting as the situation warrants”.

This entry was posted by Helen Thomas on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 4:51 and is filed under Hedge funds. Tagged with tci. Edit this entry.