TOKYO: Shareholders of Cosmo Energy Holdings Co. on Thursday approved a “poison pill” takeover defense measure against an investment fund group linked to Japanese activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami.

The Japanese oil refiner excluded the investment fund, City Index Eleventh Co., from the vote in a practice called majority-of-minority.

City Index and its partners together hold over 20 pct of Cosmo Energy. If they buy more shares, Cosmo Energy is now able to issue equity purchase warrants to dilute the group’s stake.

Cosmo Energy CEO Shigeru Yamada said that the City Index side aims to “pursue short-term profits and sell our shares at high prices at the expense of medium- to long-term corporate value and the interests of general shareholders.”

City Index said in a statement that it is absolutely unacceptable that any shareholder that a company does not like is not allowed to vote. “This is an unjustified and invalid vote,” the investment fund said.

The investment fund had demanded that Cosmo Energy take its wind power subsidiary public and return more profits to shareholders mainly through share buybacks.

Cosmo Energy shareholders voted down a slate of director candidates nominated by the City Index side. Yamada, who had been asked by the investment fund to step down, was reappointed to the board.

JIJI Press