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Activist fund manager Steel Partners Ltd. on Tuesday urged
Japanese brewer Sapporo Holdings Ltd. to hire an investment bank to
explore a sale or breakup.
The move marks the latest chapter in a standoff between Sapporo and Steel Partners that began in February 2007 when the New York-based fund launched a bid for up to two-thirds of Sapporo.
Steel Partners in March downscaled its ambitions to seek only a third of Sapporo, while raising its offer price by 6% to ¥825 a share. Sapporo's board rejected the revised plan as well, requesting last month that Steel Partners keep its stake under 20%. The U.S. group is Sapporo's largest shareholder with an 18.6% holding. Over the last five years, Sapporo's alcoholic beverages division has underperformed its peers, posting an average operating margin of 2.4% compared with 7.3% and 7.7% achieved by Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. and Asahi Breweries Ltd., respectively, Steel Partners' Warren Lichtenstein argued in a letter to Takao Murakami, Sapporo's president. Shares in the brewer closed at ¥714 Tuesday in Tokyo, down 2.7%, giving the brewer a market value of ¥281.3 billion ($2.64 billion). - Renee Cordes See full story on TheDeal.com See related Deal newsweekly story: Consensus be damned Categories Deal Video
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