The Children’s Investment Fund, bowing to the reality of the situation, is ending its bid to boost its stake in Japan’s largest electric utility.
The British activist hedge fund said today it would not go to court to overturn a Japanese government edict barring it from doubling its stake in Electric Power Development Co., better known as J-Power, to about 20%. The government’s May 13 order—which TCI has until today to challenge—marked the first time Japan had invoked a law preventing foreign investors from acquiring stakes larger than 10% in companies deemed vital to national security.
TCI owns 9.9% of J-Power.
While the firm will not engage in a “lengthy judicial process,” it said it will “continue in its quest to improve corporate governance at J-Power” and may seek to increase its stake in the future.
That quest is so far not going as TCI planned. In addition to its rebuff from the government, J-Power shareholders last month rejected all five of TCI’s proxy bids, including resolutions calling for a higher annual dividend and limits on the controversial practice of cross-shareholding.