Japan: Japanese brewer Asahi to sell EUR1.09 bln in shares to overseas investors

Major shareholders in Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings will sell 177 billion yen (€1.09 billion) in shares in a secondary offering to overseas investors, after setting a price of 5,286 per share, the company said in a stock exchange filing on November 28.

The offering represents around 6.6% of Asahi's outstanding shares, according to LSEG data, held by nine Japanese financial institutions including Nomura Holdings and the main lending unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

The price represented a 3.01% discount to Asahi's closing price on November 28 of 5,450 yen, the filing said.

Japanese companies have in recent years been unwinding cross-shareholdings that had been acquired to cement business ties.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has encouraged this unwinding, to improve Japanese companies' use of capital. Critics of cross-shareholdings say they undermine governance because such shareholders are unlikely to pressure their partners for higher returns.

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