Major shareholders in Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings will sell 177 billion yen ($1.19 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.
The offering represents around 6.6% of Asahi's outstanding shares, according to LSEG data, held by nine Japanese financial institutions including Nomura Holdings 8604.T and the main lending unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 8316.T.
Closing Price
The price represented a 3.01% discount to Asahi's closing price on Tuesday 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.
Tokyo Stock Exchange
Critics of cross-shareholdings say they undermine governance because such shareholders are unlikely to pressure their partners for higher returns.
Read More: Asahi Reports 3% Revenue Decrease In FY 2020 Results
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