OSAKA (Kyodo) Osaka Securities Exchange Co. has rejected requests from Yoshiaki Murakami, whose investment fund is the largest shareholder in the bourse, for membership on the OSE board and higher dividends, OSE officials said Tuesday.
Murakami, a former trade ministry official, called for Japan's second-biggest stock exchange to accept him as a board member and raise dividend payouts after his MAC Asset Management Inc. had boosted its OSE stake to 10 percent by the end of March.
The OSE board decided not to propose Murakami as a board member at a general meeting of shareholders in June since a fund manager's participation in the board could be taken as affecting the fairness of the stock exchange, the officials said.
The board also adopted a plan to keep the dividend unchanged at 5,000 yen per share for fiscal 2005, turning down Murakami's request for an annual dividend payment of 20,000 yen per share, they said.