Tokyo — November 18, 2021 — Asteria Corporation (Japan listed, Security Code: 3853) announced today that the company had for the first time won “Best IR Award for Encouragement,” hosted by the Japan Investor Relations Association (JIRA), a non-profit organization working to improve IR activities in Japan. The accolade is one category of the IR Award 2021, which recognizes companies for their outstanding achievements in IR activities.
| The title of the award | “Best IR Award for Encouragement” (a category of the IR Award 2021) |
|---|---|
| Main reason for selection Quoted from a news release by JIRA | Asteria’s President & CEO has a high level of communication skill and is carrying out IR activities with a strong message. His explanations are based on the overall IT industry and have been praised as easy to understand. The company has attracted great attention, as it holds a study group on blockchains, and the CEO also serves as the president of the Blockchain Collaborative Consortium (BCCC). The IR Department is also striving for better disclosure and has been highly noted for its easy-to-understand business explanations. Since last fiscal year, Asteria has also been focusing on the development of overseas institutional investors. |
Asteria President and CEO Yoichiro Pina Hirano, right,
and Senior Executive Officer Susumu Kumagai
attend a financial results briefing in November 2021
that is being live streamed from the central office in Tokyo.
Since its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Asteria has continued to actively provide information for a better understanding of its business to stakeholders.
Asteria live-streams a financial results briefing by Founder and CEO Yoichiro Pina Hirano every quarter on the same day they are announced. The company has also offered a number of IR content which spell out its highly specialized businesses such as a dialogue with an investor/YouTuber and another with an economic analyst. In recent years, the company has organized study sessions for institutional investors on hot topics such as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain in a timely manner, and shared expertise.
Asteria leads the industry in the adoption of “hybrid attendance-type virtual general meeting of shareholders” using blockchain-based system for exercising voting rights; since 2017, the company has experimented with such a system for its Annual Shareholders Meeting as a new way of communication with stakeholders. This method attracted public attention as taking attendance in online environments has become increasingly important amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The blockchain-based system makes it impossible to alter voting results even by the host of the general shareholders’ meeting. This highly transparent system maintained the same sense of security as in the in-person shareholders’ meeting.
[Comments from Founder and CEO Yoichiro Pina Hirano]
I am truly honored to receive Best IR Award for Encouragement.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude not only for earning high acclaim for our efforts to explain our highly specialized business with a focus on ease of understanding but for my ability to spread messages out.
Asteria will continue to strive to strengthen our IR activities by communicating with all our stakeholders to further boost corporate value.
| Event date | Host | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| April 2021 | Asteria | The history of NFT*1and how it works (About 100 attendees) |
| June 2021 | A brokerage house | What changes does NFT bring? (About 60 attendees) |
| Asteria | What is a SPAC*2? Why is it drawing attention now? (About 70 attendees） | |
| A brokerage house | The basics of NFT and its future (About 50 attendees) | |
| 2021年7月 | A brokerage house | A study session for NFT (About 50 attendees) |
*1: The abbreviation for a non-fungible token. It uses blockchain technology to provide proof of ownership of digital content.
*2: The abbreviation for a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a blank check company, created for the purpose of acquiring or merging with a private company.
Archived videos available only in Japanese can be viewed on Asteria’s official YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/c/AsteriaCorporation
Since Asteria selected the top-tier “Prime Market”, a new top-tier market segment of the reorganized Tokyo Stock Exchange to be introduced in April 2022, the company will advance its effort to secure liquidity in the market over the medium to long term. Additionally, it will draw on new methods to actively promote IR activities so that these activities can reach a broad range of investors. By disclosing information in accordance with the spirit of fair disclosure and improving quality of IR activities with reinforced corporate governance, Asteria, as a company which connects systems, people, things and wills to the future, will seek to achieve sustainable growth and increase corporate value in the medium-and long-term perspective.
The IR Award is designed to recognize companies which have been highly accredited in the investment community for their understanding and promotion of IR activities. This year marks the 26th year since the first IR Award. Of the JIRA member companies, 293 publicly-traded companies applied for the 2021 IR Award and a total of 14 companies were selected and received awards: the IR Grand Prix was given to two companies, the Best IR Awards to six, the IR Special Awards to three, and the Best IR Awards for Encouragement to three.
The 2021 IR Award winners have been selected with an emphasis on the following initiatives:
| 1． Management strategy during and after COVID-19 2． Evolution of constructive dialogue 3． Enhanced information disclosure regarding sustainability |
4． Connecting shareholders and investors with stakeholders 5． Activities that are easy for new shareholders to participate in 6． Early recognition of and response to risks |
| IR Grand Prix | J. Front Retailing Co., Ltd., Mitsui & Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Best IR Award | Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Shimadzu Corporation, TechnoPro Holdings, Inc., Tokyo Electron Limited, Yaskawa Electric Corporation |
| IR Special Award | Sato Holdings Corporation, LIXIL Corporation, Wacoal Holdings Corporation |
| Best IR Award for Encouragement | Asteria Corporation, SWCC Showa Holdings Co., Ltd., Vision Inc. |
Asteria, formerly Infoteria Corporation, develops and sells software and services which connect a variety of in-house computers and devices. Its key product, ASTERIA Warp, is middleware which integrates data in different computer systems without any coding. As of end-September 2021, 9,523 companies, mainly large and medium ones, had introduced the product. Another product, Handbook, allows users to carry around materials used for sales activities and meetings as well as product catalogues in electronic files on smartphones and tablets. A total of 1,633 companies and public institutions had adopted the product through end-September 2021.
For more information about Asteria, visit www.asteria.com/jp/en/
For enquiries, please contact Masumi Koizumi of Asteria’s PR and IR department.Concluded.
Posted: Dec 29, 2021 15:40
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