Fuji Media Buys Back Shares Worth 235 B. Yen

Tokyo, Feb. 5 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Fuji Media Holdings Inc. said Thursday that it has bought back shares worth a total of about 235 billion yen that were held by its top shareholder, Aya Nomura, and investment funds linked to Japanese activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami, among others. Fuji Media acquired about 61.21 million shares at 3,839 yen apiece in off-market trading as part of a share buyback program. Nomura is Murakami’s eldest daughter. According to a semiannual report by Fuji Media, the parent of Fuji Television Network Inc., Nomura and the investment funds owned a total of more than 41 million shares, or about 17 pct of the company’s outstanding shares, as of the end of September last year. The Murakami side would have received proceeds of some 160 billion yen if all of its shareholdings in Fuji Media were purchased in the buyback scheme. At the end of last year, the Murakami side said it would buy more shares through a tender offer unless Fuji Media agreed to reorganize its real estate business, which is its main source of income, and strengthen its shareholder returns. On Tuesday, the company effectively accepted the proposals, announcing a policy to consider introducing external capital into the real estate business and to implement large-scale share buybacks. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]