Oasis Management Company Ltd, the Cayman Islands-based fund whose representative is general counsel Phillip Meyer, told Japan's Kanto Local Finance Bureau on September 16 that its stake in SMS Co (TSE: 2175), the Tokyo-listed healthcare and nursing-recruitment group, has risen to 26.97% of shares outstanding, up from 25.93% in its previous report. The increase triggered a fresh disclosure requirement under Japan's large shareholding rules, which require an updated filing once a position moves by a percentage point or more; Oasis says the reporting obligation arose on September 9.
The filing puts Oasis's holding at 23,617,200 SMS shares, against 87,561,600 shares outstanding as of June 30. Oasis says it funded the purchases entirely with fund capital, putting cumulative acquisition funding at roughly ¥43.67bn.
The more consequential part of the filing is what Oasis says it has proposed, and intends to keep proposing, to SMS management. Under Japan's large shareholding disclosure rules, holders must flag which categories of "material proposal actions" they are pursuing. Oasis checked seven boxes:
| Proposal area | What the filing covers |
|---|---|
| Material asset disposal or acquisition | Disposal and acquisition of important company assets |
| Representative director selection or dismissal | Selection and dismissal of representative directors and executive officers |
| Director appointments | Appointment of specific individuals as directors |
| Board composition changes | Significant changes to board composition, including the number and terms of directors |
| Business transfers | Transfer, acquisition or discontinuation of part of the company's business |
| Delisting | Removal of SMS shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange |
| Change-of-control transactions | Acquisitions by third parties resulting in more than half of voting rights held outside the company |
Oasis says it has already submitted proposals to SMS covering these matters and plans to submit further proposals across the same list within twelve months of the September 9 reporting date. The fund frames its goal as improving board effectiveness, maintaining and improving corporate governance, raising SMS's corporate value, and increasing shareholder returns for all of the company's shareholders. It says dialogue with SMS already covers business portfolio strategy, the use of AI and data, pricing strategy and board composition.
The filing lists categories of action Oasis may pursue over the next year, not a settled plan or timetable beyond that twelve-month window. SMS has not been shown in this filing to have accepted, rejected or responded to any of the proposals.
What has changed since Oasis's last report is scale and formality. A fund that already held roughly a quarter of SMS's shares has now put a governance-and-transaction agenda on the public record that spans board removals, asset disposals, a business exit and the two most consequential outcomes a listed company can face: delisting or a change of control.