OSAKA (Kyodo) An investment fund led by former trade ministry official Yoshiaki Murakami has apparently emerged as the largest shareholder of the Osaka Securities Exchange Co. by acquiring a 10 percent equity stake in the operator of Japan's second-largest bourse, according to a report submitted to the government by the fund Monday.
M&A Consulting Inc., widely known as the Murakami Fund, said in its report to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau of the Finance Ministry that it had a stake of 10 percent in the OSE as of the end of March.
In late January, the fund was said to have a stake of more than 5 percent in the bourse, which went public last April by listing its shares on its Hercules market for startup companies.
M&A Consulting said it picked up the OSE shares "purely for investment" and said it could make no further comment.
With the OSE having some 20 billion yen in cash and deposits -- or twice its operating revenues -- Murakami has demanded that the exchange pass greater benefits on to shareholders.