Elliott Investment Management, the activist hedge fund firm founded by Paul Singer, has built a “large” stake in Sumitomo, one of Warren Buffett’s favourite Japanese trading houses, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites an unnamed person familiar with the matter as revealing that Elliot’s investment is worth “several tens of billions of yen”. A JPY10bn holding in Sumitomo equates to a 0.2% stake in the business, based on Friday’s closing share price of JPY3,909.
According to Bloomberg’s source, Elliot has already engaged with Sumitomo and shared its views on strategies aimed at improving shareholder value.
Elliot is no stranger to targeting change at Japanese companies, with past targets including Mitsui Fudosan, Toshiba, SoftBank Group, and Dai Nippon Printing.
In April, two months after news broke of Elliot’s stake in the company, Mitsui Fudosan released a plan to sell assets and increase buybacks, while Dai Nippon Printing announced its largest ever stock buyback in March 2023, following pressure from the activist fund.
