METRICALs CG Analysis Now Covers 1,808 Companies, Up From 511, Yielding More Robust Results

As of February 2018, METRICAL now covers more than 1,800 companies, having increased its scope from 500 companies. Our research now covers all TSE 1st section companies that have a market capitalization greater than Yen 10 Billion, which is to say almost all TSE1 companies. METRICAL has analyzed the corporate governance of Japanese companies for three years, using 10 criteria and more than 20 sub-criteria. The analysis focuses on both board practices as well as the corporate actions that should be closely affected by CG practice and should ultimately improve financial performance of companies.

“Corporate Governance of Japan – Analysis and Prospects -” at BDTI Seminar held on October 2 2017

“Corporate Governance of Japan – Analysis and Prospects –” was presented at BDTI Seminar held on October 2 2017 “Corporate Governance of Japan – Analysis and Prospects -” was presented at BDT Seminar held on October 2 2017 as the update research of Corporate Governance of Japan at the BDTI Seminar in March and Goldman Sachs Securities Seminar in April 2017. The updated […]

September CG Stock Performance

CG Top 20 stocks raised its outperformance, hitting all-time high Top 20 CG Score Index continued outperformance for September 2017 in favor of stock market rally for September. CG top 20 stocks hit its all time high of June 2015 when Corporate Governance Code was launched. This would be due to a sign that an increasing number of long-term investors are coming […]

Corporate Governance Rating Of Japan’s Companies (August 2017)

August CG Score inched up 0.7pt YoY

CG Rating Monthly Letter
1. CG Score attribution analysis (08/2016-08/2017)
CG score of core research universe of 489 companies for 1 year period from August 2016 to August 2017 rose 0.7 pt to 61.7 pt from 61.0 pt a year ago. Core universe increased 30 companies to 489 from 459 companies as JPX400 composites have been renewed in the month. The rise in average score keeps improving at modest rate, whereas the change in score from the previous month of 459 companies from July 2016 to July 2017 rose 0.8 pt.
We are reviewing CG enhancement in Japan before / after AGM in June 2017, but that shows modest improvement after AGM. The analysis will be released soon after review.

PRI Publishes “Japan Roadmap” Regarding Fiduciary Duty in Japan

PRI published a “Japan Roadmap” suggesting improvements in Japan regarding fiduciary duty and ESG practices. (http://bit.ly/2pmrbus)  The Roadmap cited BDTI’s recent joint research with METRICAL with regard to our analysis showing that lower cross-shareholders correlate with better corporate performance.

Quote from the PRI’s introduction of the Roadmap: “Japan’s governance reforms will fail unless more asset owners join in, and all the talk about stewardship is accompanied by analysis, action and sweat,” said Nicholas Benes, representative director, The Board Director Training Institute of Japan. “The Japan Roadmap makes sensible recommendations to turn governance goals into realities.”

What Correlates with Superior Corporate Performance? (Summary of Research)

BDTI and METRICAL conducted joint research regarding the governance structure/practices and related corporate actions that correlate with superior firm performance in Japan, and reported on the preliminary results at seminars hosted by BDTI on March 16th and by Goldman Sachs on April 4th. Our research is still underway, but the preliminary results are intriguing and provide useful guidance for the next stage of analysis.

BDTI and METRICAL believe that corporate governance is not functioning effectively unless it leads to superior strategy, fine-tuning of capital allocation and capital structure, and other value-creating corporate actions.  Therefore, in our research we have sought to identify the apparent linkages and correlations between board practice, key corporate actions, and value creation.

In Phase 1 of our analysis, we studied the TOPIX100 Index composite (large 100 companies) to see whether scores we assessed for each company’s nomination policy, training policy, compensation policy, board evaluation policy, and the % of independent directors significantly correlate with ROA and ROE.