Some 40% of firms on top Tokyo bourse disclose capital plans amid hopes for change
By Makiko Yamazaki, Brigid Riley and Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Nearly half of the companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's (TSE) prime section have responded to a call to disclose plans to improve capital efficiency, the bourse said on Monday, as it released for the first time a list of those who had complied.
The list, which did not include some of Japan's biggest and most influential companies such as Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) and SoftBank (TYO:9984) Group, marks the culmination of the bourse's push to nudge firms to improve governance and investor returns.
Some 40% of the 1,656 companies on the exchange's prime section have publicly disclosed plans, while another 9% are considering such measures, the bourse said.
Optimism about the latest initiative, first announced in March last year, had helped propel the Tokyo market to its highest level in more than three decades last year.
«The headline figures are impressive,» said Govinda Finn, a governance researcher at the University of Kobe. «You have to remember the start gun was fired in March last year, and many, many Japanese companies are going from a standing start.»
The list, which the TSE will update monthly, will effectively put pressure on companies to fall in line and disclose their plans, experts said. That could help spur the reform of a market where nearly half of listed firms trade below book value, they added.
The number of firms with disclosed measures shot up from the TSE's tentative survey in July, which saw only 20% of prime-listed companies had made such disclosure.
The TSE has set no deadline, saying it was not asking for quick fixes but long-term strategies to improve valuations. But a TSE official said in a briefing the bourse hopes all companies
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