The Company strategically holds listed shares which are found to be necessary to maintain and expand relationships with business partners over the medium to long term. And yet, the Company shall validate the appropriateness of such holdings annually in the following way, and has been reducing those share holdings.
More specifically, the Company shall scrutinize those share holdings in terms of both quantitative evaluation, which analyzes whether the benefits and risks of holding such shares are commensurate with the relevant cost of capital, and qualitative evaluation, which analyzes the degree of contribution to improving business stability, etc., and the appropriateness of selling shares shall be decided after the deliberation of the Board of Directors.
As for shares which are decided to be sold, the Company shall have sufficient dialogues with the relevant business partners to get their understanding, and then proceeds with the stock sales while considering the impact on share prices.
In FY2018, we sold a total of six stocks worth 887 million yen.

The Company shall exercise voting rights of strategically-held listed shares only when it finds that such exercise will improve on a sustainable basis the corporate values of both the Company and the company whose shares it strategically holds.
The Company shall examine whether or not the exercise of voting rights improves on a sustainable basis the corporate value of the company whose shares it strategically holds, based on management strategies, business results, etc. of the said company. Depending on the agenda, the Company shall ask the said company for an explanation before exercising voting rights.
In cases where the agenda of the company whose shares the Company strategically holds may be in conflict with the interests of the Company and if the need arises, the Company shall exercise voting rights based on Independent Outside Directors’ and outside experts’ opinions.