Tokyo Gas, Asahi Lure Housewife Investors With Beer

By Megumi Yamanaka

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Gas Co. and Asahi Breweries Ltd., Japan's biggest gas utility and second-largest brewer, are using free beer and pasta lunches to lure housewives into becoming investors.

Forty women gathered at Tokyo Gas's new test kitchen in the Ginza shopping district this week to listen to investment pitches followed by an Italian cooking class and four-course lunch washed down with Asahi Super Dry beer.

The event is an effort to attract individual investors after sales by institutional shareholders drove Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average down 46 percent so far this year because of the global credit crisis. Individuals hold shares for longer, said Tokyo Gas Executive Director Kazuo Yoshino.

``Private investors are the ones who have cash and savings,'' Yoshino said after the presentation. ``An increasing number of housewives invest in stocks. This is a good opportunity to offer information about us.''

The companies hope to tap the estimated 784 trillion yen ($7.8 trillion) in cash and deposits held by Japanese households, the world's biggest pool of private savings. About 15 percent of women in Japan invest in stocks, compared with 22 percent of men, according to the Japan Securities Dealers Association.

Women traditionally handle family finances in Japan, collecting their husbands' paychecks and doling out pocket-money in return. The term ``one-coin husband'' has come to describe the hapless office workers who must get by on a daily allowance of a single 500-yen coin.

Hot Tickets

Organizers Nikko Investor Relations Co., a unit of Nikko Citi Holdings Inc., came up with the idea of giving cooking classes on Tokyo Gas-powered stoves to attract female investors.

``We have held a lot of seminars or events in the past and most attendees were male,'' said spokesman Daisuke Hyuga of Nikko Citi, the principal holding company for Citigroup Inc. in Japan. ``We thought there must be some reason women weren't coming.''

About 370 women applied for the 80 seats available at the two sessions held this month. It was the first investment seminar for Tokyo housewife Junko Takahara.

``These events are usually on weekends when my husband is at home and it's difficult for me to be away for such a long time,'' she said. ``It's a nice opportunity for me to have a chance to hear about the two companies and learn about cooking.''

Yoko Nishide, an executive director in the women's financial planning section of Nomura Securities in Tokyo, said the companies are on the right track. Women take their time making investments decisions, and they benefit from seminars that give them a clear understanding of what's on offer.

Small Beer

``There are increasing numbers of women interested in investing and who want to invest,'' she said. ``The chances of bringing new women into the share market are better than finding new men.''

Asahi is trying to attract investors as its share price and sales slump.

Beer shipments fell to a record low in 2007 as younger consumers switched to wine and other beverages. The company's shares have lost 17.5 percent this year, and fell 5.7 percent to close at 1,561 yen today in Tokyo in the broader market sell off.

The company was forced to raise beer prices in March, the first increase in 17 years, because of rising costs.

Tokyo Gas predicted its first full-year loss since the end of the World War II in July, driven by spiraling costs of liquefied natural gas. The shares have plunged 34.6 percent this year, and lost 9 percent to close at 342 yen today in Tokyo.

Sober Investors

The number of individual investors in Tokyo Gas fell to less than 20 percent at the end of March 2008, compared with 30 percent 10 years ago, Yoshino said. About 38 percent of private investors hold shares for more than a decade, according to the Japan Securities Dealers Association in Tokyo.

While women who come to the seminars aren't necessarily going to become shareholders, the events allow the companies to promote their products, said Tokyo Gas's Yoshino and Atsunobu Izumizaki, section manager at Asahi Breweries' investor relation's office in Tokyo

``We want individual investors to become fans of our products,'' Izumizaki said. ``Some housewives said they don't drink alcohol, but they will buy it for their husbands.''

Tokyo housewife Junko Ikei said she's a regular at these kinds of events, even though she's not sure whether she will buy shares in the companies that host them.

``For private investors, annual shareholders meetings are about the only chance to hear what and how companies are doing,'' she said. ``Today I heard directly from the company officials and it's quite helpful.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo at myamanaka@bloomberg.net.