Japan high-flyer, with S'pore nest, is grounded
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Man who bought $16m penthouse here arrested in Tokyo for insider
trading
Valerie Law
[email protected]
FOR some months now, Japan's best-known fund manager and leading
shareholder activist Yoshiaki Murakami (picture) has been planting
his roots in Singapore.
.
In March, he moved the headquarters of 400 billion yen ($5.6
billion) MAC asset management fund to the Republic.
.
Last month, he was making the headlines again by paying a record
$16 million to purchase a "super penthouse" in The Boulevard
Residence on Cuscaden Walk.
.
Yesterday, he was in the news for the wrong reasons. The
46-year-old tycoon was arrested in Tokyo after admitting to insider
trading in the run-up to Japan's biggest hostile takeover attempt.
Mr Murakami bought almost 1.93 million shares in Nippon
Broadcasting System (NBS) after learning that Livedoor, the
now-collapsed Internet firm, was planning to take over the radio
station operator.
.
In a nationally-televised press conference yesterday, Mr Murakami
admitted that the source of his information was none other than
Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old chief executive of Livedoor who
used to be the poster boy of new Japanese business until he was
charged with breaking securities laws.
.
Mr Murakami said Horie had told him of his plans to take over NBS
in late 2004. His fund then started buying NBS shares, which surged
once Livedoor launched its takeover bid in February 2005.
.
Mr Murakami made a neat profit by selling the shares his fund had
accumulated to Livedoor and other market investors.
.
Trying to defend himself yesterday, Mr Murakami claimed: "I didn't
think Livedoor had the wherewithal to actually go through with it.
I didn't buy (NBS) shares because of my conversation, but it's true
that I heard what I heard."
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Livedoor eventually withdrew its bid, but Mr Murakami said that he
continued discussing business matters, including NBS, with
Horie.
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"We saw each other at the gym, so of course we chatted," he
said.
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Both he and Horie had become cult figures for their attempts to
shake up Japan's somewhat conservative business environment, where
the interests of the management sometimes took precedence over
those of the shareholders.
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A defiant Mr Murakami, who famously made his first equity
investment at the age of nine and has been using his stakes in
various companies to ask them tough questions, said that Japan was
hostile to those who challenged the system.
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"Don't you think this country tends to kick out people who
challenge?" he asked. "I may not be qualified to say this since I
have done something illegal, but I hope that Japan will one day
become a country that accepts people who challenge."
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Mr Murakami added that he would resign from his fund, now
headquartered in Singapore, but that it would continue to operate
without him.
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Asked to comment on this, a spokesperson for the Monetary Authority
of Singapore said that MAC Asset Management was an exempt fund
manager which undertook fund management activity in Singapore as
well as an exempt financial adviser.
.
"In Singapore, if an exempt fund manager or exempt financial
adviser or any of its representatives are found not to be fit and
proper, MAS can take appropriate regulatory action," the
spokesperson added.
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Officers at MAC Asset Managment's Singapore office refused to
comment.
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Mr Murakami, meanwhile, said that only a third of the fund's money
has been invested, with the rest sitting on its books as
cash.
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Insider dealing carries a maximum prison sentence of three years,
something Mr Murakami should know, since he was heavily involved
drawing up laws on mergers and acquisition during his time as an
official in the trade ministry, which he quit in 1999.
.
"This time I got a red card," he said. "I am going to leave the
pitch once and reflect. I am not sure what's going to happen next,
but I believe it would be right to stand back."
