Elliott Reports Stake in Tokyo Gas as Activists Target Japan

(Bloomberg) -- Elliott Investment Management reported a major stake in Tokyo Gas Co, the latest example of activist investors trying to unlock hidden value in Japanese firms.

The fund now holds 5.03% of the utility and may make important proposals to the company, it said in a filing Tuesday to the Japanese finance ministry. It’s Elliott’s fourth investment in a Japanese firm this year, but the first time since 2019 that it’s acquired more than 5%, a level that requires investors to make their holding public.

Elliott wasn’t immediately available for comment. A Tokyo Gas spokesperson said that the company is aware of the report, but declined to comment further.

Activist investors like Elliott have been campaigning to boost value for shareholders in Japanese firms. The hedge fund, which manages about $70 billion in assets, has stepped up its campaign in Japan this year, building stakes in trading house Sumitomo Corp., SoftBank Group Corp. and developer Mitsui Fudosan Co.

Tokyo Gas, whose core business involves producing, importing and distributing energy, also owns undeveloped parts of Tokyo’s Toyosu district as well as hotels, apartments and office buildings.

Elliott thinks the utility can improve its capital efficiency by selling a large amount of the real estate it owns, given that it’s not a core part of its business, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The fund is of the view that Tokyo Gas should sell more than 75 properties and projects including the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel, which could be worth as much as 1.5 trillion yen ($9.8 billion) combined, said the person, asking not to be named as the information isn’t public.

In Japan, there’s a huge gap — 22 trillion yen by one estimate — between how companies value real estate assets on their books, and what those same properties would fetch if sold in the current market. The result is that billions in value can be unlocked by pressuring companies to sell off these holdings, a tactic that activist funds are now employing.

(Updates with comments from unnamed source from 6th paragraph.)

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