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TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) – The chairman of Japan’s Fujitec Co Ltd 6406.T said on Tuesday he would file a defamation lawsuit next month against Oasis Management, the elevator maker’s top shareholder, raising tensions in a high profile battle with the activist investor.
The move comes a month after Oasis, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund with a 17% stake, scored a major win at an extraordinary shareholders meeting where three outside directors were replaced with four new ones nominated by the fund.
Chairman Takakazu Uchiyama told a news conference that Oasis defamed him and his family by groundlessly attacking past real estate transactions between the company and his family, which the fund said reflected the founding family’s abuse of control.
Uchiyama’s lawyer, Hiroyuki Kawai, told the same conference that he believed the case represents “a greedy foreign investor hijacking an honest Japanese manufacturer”.
Uchiyama is also planning to file a shareholder lawsuit against Oasis founder Seth Fischer and board directors nominated by Oasis, Kawai said.
A representative for Oasis said the fund had no immediate comment to make.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Kaori Kaneko; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jason Neely)
((kaori.kaneko@thomsonreuters.com;))
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