OSAKA (Kyodo) The Murakami Fund could be the largest shareholder in the Osaka Securities Exchange after boosting its stake to more than 5 percent in late January, sources said Thursday.

Investment fund M&A Consulting Inc., known as the Murakami Fund for its head, former trade ministry official Yoshiaki Murakami, is believed to have raised its holdings in the bourse even further since then, the sources said.

The fund may demand during the OSE shareholder meeting in June that the bourse implement additional management reforms.

A list of shareholders eligible to attend the June meeting was finalized at the end of March.

The OSE said last month it will raise its dividend payout to 7,000 yen per share from an initial 4,000 yen for the business year to March 31.

The stock market, the nation's second-largest after the Tokyo Stock Exchange, said the increase reflects its favorable earnings, but the sources said it was partly triggered by the Murakami Fund's request that the OSE boost payouts to shareholders.

The fund is known to have bought shares of firms whose asset values are deemed high in comparison with their market capitalizations, and urged the companies to step up shareholder benefits.

The Securities and Exchange Law requires any party to get approval from the Financial Services Agency if it owns more than a 20 percent stake in a stock exchange.