June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Yoshiaki Murakami, Japan's leading shareholder
activist, said he is under investigation for insider trading and
expects to be indicted.
``It's my fault, I broke the law,'' Murakami said at a press
conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Murakami said he may have made a ``mistake'' in buying and selling
shares of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. last year and was
questioned by Tokyo prosecutors for two days. He apologized for his
mistakes and said he would retire from the securities business. His
fund, MAC Asset Management Pte is worth about 400 billion yen ($3.6
billion) and will continue to operate, he said.
The allegations against Murakami, a bureaucrat turned investor, come
four months after former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie was
arrested on suspicion of securities fraud. Four ex-Livedoor
executives last month pleaded guilty to some of the charges. Horie
has denied the charges.
Murakami's fund bought shares in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. last
year when the broadcaster was the subject of a takeover bid by
Livedoor. The fund may have used inside information in selling the
shares, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said on June 2.
``These are warning balloons from authorities,'' said Masaru Kaneko,
a professor of economics at Keio University in Tokyo. ``The recent
series of incidents illustrates how Japanese companies lack
transparency, compliance and good corporate governance.''
Shares of 21 companies held by Murakami fell on June 2, after the
Nihon Keizai report, wiping out about 11 billion yen ($97.5 million)
of his funds' wealth. The value was calculated based on purchase
filings MAC Asset made to the finance ministry.
The investigation into Murakami comes amid negotiations between his
fund and Hankyu Holdings Inc., which has made a takeover bid for
Hanshin Electric Railway Co. MAC Asset Management Pte owns 46.8
percent of Hanshin, a railway operator in the Osaka area.
Young Investor
Murakami, 46, was born in Osaka, Japan's second largest city. After
graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1983 he joined the trade
ministry before going out on his own in 1999.
He made his first equity investment at the age of 9 when his father
gave him 1 million yen ($89,000), according to a May 20 article in
the Weekly Toyo Keizai magazine. He put the money in Sapporo Holdings
Ltd., Japan's third-largest brewer, because of his father's
preference for Sapporo Beer.
Murakami's emergence coincides with a drive by Japan's government to
limit cross shareholding by companies with their banks that were used
to discourage takeover attempts. He has used his investments to push
companies to maximize shareholder values by reorganizing corporate
structures or paying higher dividends.
``He claims to act in the shareholder's best interest, but sells out
as soon as the stock rises enough,'' Keio's Kaneko said.
Murakami began investing in Nippon Broadcasting in 2003, a company
controlled by Fuji Television Inc., becoming its biggest shareholder,
and demanded it merge with Fuji.
Horie launched a hostile takeover of Nippon Broadcasting in February
2005. Murakami reduced his shares in Nippon Broadcasting from 18.6
percent to 3.4 percent as of Feb. 28 2005, while Horie increased his
stake to 29.6 percent shares on Feb. 8, according to documents filed
separately at the Ministry of Finance.
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