OSAKA (Kyodo) Liberty Square Asset Management, a U.S. investment firm, has become the second-largest shareholder in television broadcaster Asahi Broadcasting Corp. after newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun Co., according to a Liberty Square report obtained Friday.
In the report submitted to the Finance Ministry's Kanto Local Finance Bureau, the Massachusetts-based asset management company said it has acquired 8.22 percent of outstanding Asahi Broadcasting shares "purely for the purpose of investment."
Liberty Square started purchasing shares in the Osaka-based broadcaster before 2003 and owned 296,050 shares as of March 16 this year.
Asahi Broadcasting officials said Liberty Square's move is aimed at nothing but investment as they have received no communication from the U.S. firm.
Total foreign ownership of Asahi Broadcasting stood at 15.90 percent as of the end of March. Under the radio law, a broadcaster loses its business license if the combined stake of foreign shareholders in it tops 20 percent in terms of voting rights.
Asahi Broadcasting is listed on the second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange.