Selling one per cent of the shares ended thirty years of Mitsui shipbuilding control (2021)

The 1.0 point that undid thirty years

What ended a thirty-year parent-subsidiary relationship was neither a clash over strategy nor an approach from a buyer, but a single number: the tradable-share ratio. At the transition record date of 30 June 2021, Modec met the other Prime Market requirements — 8,821 shareholders, $380.8M (¥42bn) of tradable market capitalisation — but the ratio alone stood at 34.0% against a threshold of 35.0%. What held it down was the 50.10% held by Mitsui E&S Holdings; the party whose cooperation had to be sought was the same party keeping the figure out of reach.

That 50.10%, though, was also the holding that had protected the company for thirty years. Since Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding became sole parent in March 1991 the shareholder structure had not moved, and even in the year to December 2021, when Modec posted a net loss of $459.1M (¥50bn), the top of the register was unchanged. The stability that did not waver in a loss-making year and the 34.0% ratio were the front and back of the same holding. Mitsui E&S later fell below 10%, and in August 2024 Mitsui O.S.K. Lines took the seat of sole largest shareholder. The one per cent sold to move 34.0% to 35.0% appears to have settled the destination of the remaining 49.10% as well.