Toshiba activist investor Oasis unimpressed by CVC's $20 billion offer

Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management belies CVC Capital's $20 billion proposal to take Toshiba Corp private is "far below fair value" and has urged the Japanese conglomerate to seek other offers.

An investor in Toshiba since 2016, the fund said that a price of more than 6,200 yen ($56.54) per share for Toshiba would be appropriate, rather than the reported offer of 5,000 yen per share.

While Oasis understands that the bid was unsolicited and should be given due consideration for the benefit of all shareholders, the activist investor wrote to Toshiba's board chairman, Osamu Nagayama, to voice its concerns.

"If the company is open to bids, we believe there would be other bidders interested in acquiring Toshiba," Oasis said in the letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

U.S. hedge fund Farallon Capital Management has also asked Toshiba to seek multiple offers, but Oasis is the first to present what it considers a fair price.

Toshiba shares have been hovering well below CVC's likely offer price after hitting a four-year high last week, with the stock closing at 4,595 yen on Tuesday.

Oasis does not disclose the size of its stake while Farallon is Toshiba's third-largest shareholder with a holding of about 6%, said a source close to the matter.

Known for its overtures to Japanese companies to boost returns, Oasis recently helped to drive the sale of baseball stadium owner Tokyo Dome Corp to developer Mitsui Fudosan in a $1.2 billion deal.

The Oasis letter to Toshiba also proposed that the company should set up a special committee to discuss the CVC offer as soon as possible, adding that Chief Executive Nobuaki Kurumatani be excluded from the process because he is a former senior CVC executive.

Separately, the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday said there had been block trades of 72 billion yen of Toshiba shares on Friday, representing about 3.4% of the company's market value.

($1 = 109.6600 yen)

 

(Additoinal reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Stephen Coates and David Goodman)