An investment fund led by financier Yoshiaki Murakami raked in an estimated profit of more than 10 billion yen by selling a large chunk of its stake in Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., according to a report presented by the fund to the government Tuesday.
The so-called Murakami Fund, formally known as M&A Consulting Inc., told the Finance Ministry's Kanto Local Finance Bureau in the report that its stake in the radio and TV company fell to 0.52 percent as of Oct. 31 from 7.45 percent at the end of September.
The fund, led by the one-time bureaucrat at the old Ministry of International Trade and Industry, began full-fledged purchases of TBS shares in July. In October, the fund sold 13.16 million TBS shares, or 6.93 percent, of its holdings.
The price of TBS stock, meanwhile, hovered around 2,000 yen in the July-September period and then topped 3,000 yen in October, hitting a high of 4,110 yen on Oct. 14, in the wake of Rakuten Inc.'s announcement of a takeover bid for TBS.
Assuming the sale brought in a profit of 1,000 yen per share, the fund reaped a profit of 13 billion yen or more through transactions over the past few months, financial industry sources said.
The fund said it sold the shares on the open market instead of to a specific company, adding that it profited from the sale because TBS stock had risen sharply.
TBS has been the focus of a de facto takeover bid by the country's largest Internet shopping mall operator, Rakuten Inc.
The sources said Rakuten must have purchased a large part of the TBS shares sold by the Murakami Fund because it raised its stake in TBS during October to 19.09 percent from 15.46 percent held earlier.