Speaker: Nicholas Smith, Japan Strategist, CLSA

Hosting Committee: Alternative Investment Committee

Member Fee: ¥600

Guest Fee: ¥1,200

Registration/Cancellation Deadline: Monday, July 13, 10:00AM

CLSA’s outspoken Japan Strategist Nicholas Smith aims to summarize what happened, and, more importantly, what didn’t happen in the Annual General Meetings this year.

Despite the many and varied impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of companies facing activist proposals ‘surged’ 38% year-on-year to a new high of 22 this year. This is pitiful: only one out of every 169 companies. Japanese companies are famously bloated with excess capital, but asking for share buybacks in these pandemic conditions seemed almost mean.

• What were most activists asking for instead of buybacks - and did they get it?

• How are companies able to resist what seem in many cases such reasonable requests?

• Why do investors self-harm?

• Which were the biggest successes and the biggest failures for activists this year?

• Which activist strategies work best? In 2014, proxy advisory giant ISS recommended voting out the CEOs of companies that failed to beat a five-year ROE hurdle of 5%, yet many such loser CEOs managed to receive reelection support rates of over 95%.

• Who was reelected this year, and how?

• Which CEOs fell from grace in this year’s voting and why?

Join us for the 2020 AGM post-mortem presentation followed by Q&A session.

Frank Packard, Chair

Christopher P. Wells, Pieter Franken, Deborah Hayden, Vice Chairs

ACCJ Alternative Investment Committee

NOTE 1: This event is ON THE RECORD.