Activist Nihon Global puts forth ideas to build shareholder value at noodle giant Toyo Suisan

Enterprise: Toyo Suisan Kaisha and its subsidiaries produce and promote meals merchandise in Japan and internationally. The corporate operates by means of the next segments: Seafood, Abroad Immediate Noodles, Home Immediate Noodles, Frozen and Refrigerated Meals, Processed Meals and Chilly Storage. It purchases, processes, and sells seafood, and manufactures and sells quite a lot of merchandise together with on the spot cup and bag noodles, soup and processed meals.

Inventory Market Worth: Roughly 1 trillion Japanese yen (10,070.00 yen per share)

Share Possession: 3.8%

Common Value: n/a

Activist Commentary: Nihon World Development Companions Administration is a long-term investor in Japanese-listed corporations which might be rising quickly in markets exterior of Japan. Previous to founding Nihon World in 2018, the agency’s principals have been concerned in managing a personal fairness program in Japan beginning in 2004. As personal fairness traders, the principals have accomplished 9 buyouts, together with three listed corporations in Japan. All of the principals’ prior personal fairness investments concerned Japanese corporations the place a considerable portion of the expansion was in markets exterior of Japan.

In late April, Nihon World issued a press launch and presentation detailing its funding in Toyo Suisan and 4 shareholder proposals it has put ahead to be voted on on the firm’s upcoming 2024 basic shareholders’ assembly: (i) enhance the dividend payout ratio to 40%; (ii) repurchase 20 billion yen of the corporate’s shares; (iii) implement a director inventory compensation program; and (iv) disclose the corporate’s price of capital.

Toyo Suisan is a global conglomerate with a number of enterprise segments throughout seafood, processed meals and refrigeration, however its crown jewel is its abroad on the spot noodle enterprise. The corporate is a world chief within the house, particularly in North America which contributed 65% of consolidated earnings earlier than curiosity and taxes in 2023 and is predicted to surpass 70% within the coming years. Toyo Suisan’s model of packaged on the spot noodles beneath the model title Maruchan may be discovered in additional than the dorm rooms of faculty college students, dominating 70% of market share by quantity and 45% by gross sales worth within the US, and 75%+ in Mexico. The phase has loved roughly 10.9% income and 12.8% EBIT compound annual progress charges from 2012 to 2024, in addition to persistently wholesome EBIT margins within the mid-teens.

Regardless of this staggering efficiency and standing as a world chief in on the spot noodles within the U.S., Mexico, and Japan, the corporate seems deeply discounted to its intrinsic worth. Nihon World attributes this to the corporate’s (i) lack of strategic give attention to its core property; (ii) poor capital allocation, dedicating far an excessive amount of capex on low ROA legacy companies and being considerably overcapitalized; and (iii) a scarcity of consideration to complete shareholder return, which has underperformed friends when it comes to complete returns, in addition to a scarcity of a proper shareholder return coverage.

The perfect plan for Toyo Suisan could be to divest its legacy and non-core companies and focus its capital and sources on rising its core noodles enterprise. Legacy companies have generated simply 17% of the corporate’s 10-year cumulative earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but they’ve been awarded 51% of the capex regardless of producing sub-5% return on property. Property like its invaluable refrigerated warehouse phase, a really enticing enterprise, could be higher suited as a Japanese actual property funding belief or bought to a strategic acquirer. The identical applies to its processed meals and seafood buying and selling companies, which might profit from the dimensions and synergies supplied by a strategic acquirer, but they proceed to languish in Toyo Suisan, hindering valuations and diverting consideration from the corporate’s core progress areas all whereas delivering poor ROAs.

Nissin Meals (2897.T) is among the largest and most revered on the spot noodle corporations globally. Toyo Suisan has persistently outperformed Nissin Meals in North America, one of the vital worthwhile and fastest-growing markets on this planet. But, Nissin trades at a better price-earnings a number of as a result of it’s a pure play targeted on the moment noodle market. Nissin additionally has a transparent 40% dividend payout ratio and conducts share buybacks. Toyo Suisan, alternatively, is the final remaining firm amongst its friends with no shareholder return coverage and no said targets relating to return on fairness, dividend on fairness, dividend payout ratio and complete shareholder return, in line with Nihon World’s presentation. It additionally hasn’t performed a share buyback in 17 years.

Turning into a pure-play noodle firm with improved capital allocation practices would nearly instantly shut the roughly 8 occasions P/E a number of low cost that Toyo Suisan trades at versus Nissin Meals. After that, because the dominant participant within the North American market, Toyo Suisan could be in a chief place to be a world consolidator within the on the spot noodle market, a market that’s prime for consolidation with two to 3 gamers dominating the business. With this plan, Nihon World estimates that the intrinsic worth of the corporate is 17,300 yen per share or extra, versus the low 10,000 vary.

Nonetheless, whereas that kind of an formidable activist plan could be commonplace in the US, activism in Japan is extra of a jog than a dash. It typically begins with shareholder proposals that by regulation can solely deal with particular points, similar to capital allocation and dividends. Accordingly, Nihon World has put ahead 4 shareholder proposals to be voted on on the firm’s annual assembly in June 2024: (i) enhance the dividend payout ratio to 40%; (ii) repurchase 20 billion yen of the corporate’s shares; (iii) implement a director share compensation program which might make 40% of complete compensation performance-linked and half of which might be inventory; and (iv) disclose the corporate’s price of capital. These are extremely cheap proposals. The dividend increase is an incremental enhance of just one.9% of December 2023 money. The repurchase is simply 4.6% of shareholders fairness as of December 2023. The compensation program is the same as market normal, and the disclosure of price of capital is in line with the present suggestions of the Tokyo Inventory Trade.

A phrase about shareholder proposals in Japan for individuals who should not acquainted with them: They’re like going earlier than Decide Chamberlain Haller within the 1992 film “My Cousin Vinny.” “That may be a lucid, clever, nicely thought out objection. Overruled.” In different phrases, they not often move. Final yr, 3% of company governance shareholder proposals have been handed and 4% of steadiness sheet-based shareholder proposals have been handed. That’s a part of an upward pattern. However there may be quite a lot of excellent news right here. First, if handed they’re binding – in contrast to within the U.S. Second, and extra importantly, they don’t have to move to get the eye of administration. Japanese enterprise tradition takes shareholder issues critically: If a proposal will get not less than 20% of the votes, administration will typically act ultimately that’s in line with it. Final yr, 107 shareholder proposals acquired greater than 20% approval from shareholders, and 49 acquired greater than 30%, in line with a research by regulation agency White & Case.

On this case, Nihon World may probably win right here or obtain upward of 40% of the vote, which is sort of like a mandate in Japan. Final yr at Toyo Suisan, a much less skilled activist shareholder with negligible possession who didn’t do any advertising or soliciting to help its extra debatable proposal to amend the Articles of Incorporation acquired 19.8% of the vote. Furthermore, the shareholder base right here is 41% overseas and extra prone to help a shareholder proposal. There isn’t a “white knight” giant shareholder and no cross holdings that help administration. Nihon World’s first three proposals usually tend to move than its fourth proposal, as the primary three require a majority of votes forged and the fourth proposal would require two-thirds of the votes forged. One final chance that always occurs in Japan is that Nihon World may withdraw its proposals after assembly with administration, who would conform to institute among the suggestions. Senior administration has up to now refused to satisfy with Nihon World, however the agency has solely been requesting a gathering since September 2023 and that’s considerably normal in Japan. Now that Nihon World has escalated it to shareholder proposals, senior administration might determine to satisfy with the agency, significantly as this can be a next-generation senior administration crew, a few of whom are American skilled.

This activist marketing campaign highlights three necessary themes in Japanese activist investing. First, it reveals the alternatives out there to activists in Japan the place cheap shareholder proposals may result in important shareholder worth creation. Second, it reveals the constraints of activism in Japan the place formidable plans, even when compelling and logical, similar to divesting non-core companies and specializing in the core enterprise is a non-starter within the early phases of a marketing campaign in Japan. Third, there’s a pattern in Asia of personal fairness traders turning to public firm shareholder activism. Whereas shareholder engagement in Japan is comparatively new for public traders, personal fairness traders have been doing it for many years. Accordingly, it’s the personal fairness traders who’ve the expertise coping with administration groups of public Japanese corporations. That’s inviting quite a lot of former personal fairness traders into the house. Brian Doyle of Nihon World and his crew are a superb instance of this. Hiroyuki Otsuka, a former deputy head of Carlyle Group’s Japan enterprise, not too long ago raised roughly $1 billion {dollars} to launch Newton Funding Administration, a Japanese engagement fund.

Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional analysis service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio supervisor of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.