Seven & i Holdings’ shareholders elected all 15 of the company’s candidates at the 18th annual shareholders meeting, thereby rejecting ValueAct Capital’s four board candidate nominees.
ValueAct has been publicly calling for the replacement of President Ryuichi Isaka as well as the spinoff of 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Despite this, Isaka received 76.36% of shareholders’ support.
“We thank the company’s shareholders for their support and for the productive discussions we have had in the weeks leading up to the vote. We are encouraged that many of our shareholders recognize the significant governance changes we have made over the past year and endorse the convenience store-focused growth strategy that is driving our strong results,” said the board in a statement. “We will continue to listen to the input of all shareholders. The Strategy Committee, composed solely of independent outside directors, will continuously assess all options for value creation objectively, and the board will focus on accelerating our business transformation with an open mind toward all options for value creation.”
The unapproved candidates received 25.52% to 34.13% support.
About 10% of the company is still owned by the founding family and the presence of activist investors is small. As such, support of more than 30% for ValueAct candidates would be significant, investors have said, according to Reuters.
ValueAct, which owns 4.4% of the company, was not the only shareholder to want change. Artisan Partners and Institutional Shareholder Services agreed with ValueAct’s proposals.
“We look forward to engaging constructively with Seven & i representatives and our fellow shareholders to discuss next steps in response to these strong signals,” ValueAct said in a statement, reported Reuters.