Activist Investor Pressures Ishihara

Steel Partners, a U.S. activist investment firm, has submitted a series of suggestions to Ishihara Chemical intended to improve the industrial and plating chemical maker's return to shareholders. The investment fund, which owns 7% of Ishihara's shares, says the Japanese company's stock market value has dropped 58%, or about $120 million, between April 2006 and September 2008. Steel recommends that Ishihara improve financial transparency, repurchase shares, and nominate independent financial monitors to its board of directors. Steel tried to take over Yushiro Chemical Industry, another mid-sized Japanese firm, in 2005 after exerting similar pressure.