Eve Maddock-Jones, Investment Week, 12 August 2025:
A merger was first floated back in April and now the two parties have put out their heads of terms, which will see participating FJV shareholders either fully roll their assets into the reformed AJOT vehicle or cash out at 1% less than FJV’s Formula Asset Value (FAV).
The cash exit will be limited to only 50% of FJV’s stocks in issue..
The deal has not been a frictionless transaction, although widely supported by AJOT’s board FJV’s side has mainly been driven by its biggest shareholder, City of London IM.
Meanwhile on AJOT’s side, its chair Norman Crighton praised the deal and said “as AJOT set out last year, and again in April 2025, we strongly believe that this combination could unlock greater returns and continued outperformance for existing shareholders of both trusts”..
Plans to convene general meetings with both FJV and AJOT are slated for later this year, with the scheme set to take effect “no later than November 2025” if voted through by both parties’ shareholders.
James Carthew, head of investment company research, QuotedData said: “I am really pleased to see that AJOT was picked as the merger partner for FJV. The trust has had a great run of performance this year, but we think that the Japanese corporate governance revolution has a long way to go yet and AVI Japan should continue to thrive. The trust tends to trade fairly close to NAV”.
On the cash out option, Carthew said “if you are a FJV investor and you still want Japanese exposure, my suggestion would be to roll into AJOT rather than take the cash option”.
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