Hitachi : Elliott boosts stake in Hitachi Kokusai to over 6 percent - filing
September 19, 2017 at 07:17 am EDT
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TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management Corp raised its stake in Hitachi Kokusai Electric (>> Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc) to just over 6 percent, a government filing showed, piling up pressure on KKR & Co LP (>> KKR & Co. L.P.) that has been trying to buy out the Japanese firm.
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management Corp raised its stake in Hitachi Kokusai Electric (>> Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc) to just over 6 percent, a government filing showed, piling up pressure on KKR & Co LP (>> KKR & Co. L.P.) that has been trying to buy out the Japanese firm.
Elliott, a $33 billion (£24.42 billion) multi-strategy hedge fund with an aggressive activist shareholder arm, is known for buying stakes in companies that are in the middle of a takeover and forcing a better deal for shareholders.
Only last week, it said it had a more than 5 percent stake in Hitachi Kokusai. According to the latest filing, Elliott now owns 6.1 percent.
U.S. buyout firm KKR agreed in April to buy the chip-making equipment and video solutions business from Hitachi Ltd (>> Hitachi, Ltd.) in a deal valuing the unit at about $2.3 billion.
But the deal was put on hold last month after a third-party committee said the terms could be disadvantageous to minority shareholders.
Hitachi Kokusai shares closed at 2,974 yen on Tuesday, 18.8 percent higher than KKR's offer price of 2,503 yen ($22.42).
(This version of the story refiles to correct spelling of Elliott in headline)
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Hitachi specializes in manufacturing and marketing of electronic and industrial equipments. Net sales (including intragroup) break down by family of products and services as follows:
- social infrastructure and industrial systems (24.7%): elevators, escalators, industrial facilities, railway systems, power generation units, etc. The group also provides engineering and construction of nuclear, hydroelectric, and thermal power plants services;
- information and telecommunications products and services (20.1%): systems integration, cloud computing, software, servers, hard disks, PCs, ATMs, data communication base stations, payment terminals, etc.;
- materials and components (16.6%): semi-conductor materials, printed circuit cards, cables, copper and forged steel products, magnetic materials, organic and inorganic chemical products, etc.;
- construction equipment (10%) : hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, mining equipment, etc.;
- automotive systems (9.4%): powertrain systems, control systems, etc.;
- electronic products (9.2%): fiber-optic components, screen tubes, testing and measurement equipment, medical equipment, equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, etc.;
- household appliances (4.7%): heating and air conditioning equipments, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.;
- other (5.3%): mainly transport, financial and logistical services.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Japan (49.2%), Asia (21.3%), North America (12.7%), Europe (10.8%) and other (6%).