Toshiba Corp. shareholders voted in two board directors from activist hedge fund investors at the firm's annual general meeting Tuesday, in an inclusion expected to add momentum to its exploration of potential buyout deals.
Nabeel Bhanji, a senior portfolio manager at Elliott Management, and Eijiro Imai, managing director at Farallon Capital Management, were elected, as was Akihiro Watanabe, an executive from boutique U.S. investment bank Houlihan Lokey, who becomes chairman of its board.
To date only a few large Japanese companies have brought activist shareholders onto their boards. The inclusion by Toshiba is particularly significant given its history of accounting and governance crises since 2015 and tensions with its large activist investor base.