M&A trends turn Japan's attention to shareholders

Japan is looking attractive on the back of the increasing importance of shareholder value in its sto...

Japan is looking attractive on the back of the increasing importance of shareholder value in its stock markets and lower valuations. Denis Clough, who runs the Tokyo unit trust and Japan Growth investment trust, said around half of Japanese companies are trading at below their book value. In addition, the increasing trend towards merger and acquisition activity is focusing the minds of Japanese management on improving returns for shareholders. Japanese companies have an average price to book value of 2.5 compared with 5.6 for the US, 4.4 for Europe excluding the UK and 3.9 for the UK. C...