When a yearslong father-daughter feud over who took leadership of a furniture retailer threatened to drive the company into the ground, one top-performing fund manager took it as a reason to celebrate.
That's not because he was shorting the stock, but because the negative publicity would temporarily damage the image of firms in his niche area of investing, and give him opportunities to go against the crowd.
Jumpei Kitahara invests only in Japanese companies whose management owns at least 5 percent of the outstanding shares. He says these owner-managed or family-run firms already have a bad reputation among Japanese investors, and the drama at Otsuka Kagu Ltd. only gave him more chances to buy.