Structure
Fees and costs
In connection with the FJV merger, AVI agreed to a new tiered management fee structure, based on the lower of market capitalisation and net assets, with a fee of 1.0% on the first £300m, 0.95% on the next £50m, and 0.90% on assets above £350m. AVI continues to invest a quarter of its fees back into AJOT shares.
The ongoing charges ratio for the financial year ended 31 December 2025 was 1.4%, down from 1.5% for FY24. The AJOT board estimated that, based on the new fee arrangements, the ongoing charges ratio may be about 1.25% on a normalised basis.
Capital structure
At 31 May 2026, AJOT had 247,873,823 ordinary shares in issue, 25,475,429 of which were held in treasury. Therefore, the number of shares admitted to trading and with voting rights was 222,398,394. There are no other classes of share capital. No ordinary shares were held in treasury at that date.
The company’s accounting year end is 31 December, and its AGMs are typically held in April/May.
AJOT has an unlimited life; however, as detailed above, shareholders have a regular opportunity to exit the company at a price close to NAV.
Major shareholders
Figure 15: Major shareholders as at 12 March 2026
Source: AVI Japan Opportunity Trust
The data in Figure 15 was taken from the annual report. Since then:
AVI has acquired a further 85,000 shares in connection with its commitment to invest at least 25% of its investment management fee into AJOT shares.
Finda Oy has reduced its stake to 2m shares or 8.99% of AJOT.
Gearing and hedging
AJOT had a JPY6.6bn (roughly £31m) revolving credit facility that matured on 2 April 2026. Interest was charged at TONAR plus 1.55%. At the end of March 2026, the company had net gearing of 6%.
AJOT does not currently intend to hedge its underlying currency exposure, but the board and manager keep this under review.
Management team
Joe Bauernfreund (CEO and CIO)
Joe is chief executive officer and chief investment officer of AVI. He is the sole manager of AVI Global Trust and AVI Japan Opportunity Trust, and responsible for all investment decisions across AVI’s global and Japan strategies. Before joining AVI in 2002, Joe worked for six years at a real estate investment organisation in London. He has a Masters in Finance from the London Business School.
Nicola Takada Wood (managing director Japan)
Nicola joined AVI in January 2025 from Redwheel, where she was portfolio manager and portfolio advisor of the Japan strategy. Prior to that, she was responsible for Japanese equity sales at Mizuho International and Japanese sales trading at Goldman Sachs (Japan). Nicola has a BSc from University of London, SOAS.
Kaz Sakai (head of Japan research)
Kaz started working with AVI in May 2020, researching Japanese companies while completing his MBA at Harvard Business School. He formally joined AVI’s investment team in June 2021. Prior to Harvard, he was engagement manager at McKinsey & Company’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in Tokyo.
Kaz holds a BSc in Geochemistry from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Shuntaro Shimizu (senior investment analyst)
Shuntaro joined AVI in August 2023 from Bain & Company, where he worked within its management consultancy division. Prior to that, he worked within the Bank of Japan. He has a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ross McGarry (senior investment analyst)
Ross joined AVI in June 2020. He researches South Korean holding companies and asset-backed Japanese companies.
Before joining AVI, Ross completed a one-year programme at Nomura on a UK M&A Investment Banking Industrial Placement. He has a BSc in Economics from the University of Bath.
Jason Bellamy (senior engagement consultant)
Jason joined AVI in March 2020. He works closely with the analyst team and collaborates on the engagement efforts in Japan. Jason brings more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, working for and engaging with global companies, government bodies, regulators and international investors including Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, First Trust Advisors and Aberdeen Standard Investments. He is based in Tokyo.
Jason has a BSc in Economics from The London School of Economics & Political Science (University of London).
Luke Hutcherson (investment analyst)
Luke joined AVI in February 2023. He researches asset-backed Japanese companies and South Korean holding companies. Before joining AVI, Luke completed internships at Tico Capital Management and Ernst & Young. He has a BCom in Finance & Accounting from the University of Sydney and an MSc in Financial Analysis from London Business School.
Yuiko Ozawa (investment analyst)
Yuiko joined AVI in March 2026 after three years working for McKinsey & Company. She has a BA in Sociology from Sophia University.
Ben Levy (ESG analyst)
Ben joined AVI in April 2025. He is responsible for the integration of ESG and sustainability assessments into the investment process.
Prior to joining AVI, Ben was a sustainable finance consultant at Guidehouse where he also served as APAC Co-ordinator for the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials. Ben has an MA in Economics from University of Glasgow and an MSc in Climate Change, Management & Finance from Imperial College Business School. He also holds the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Board
Following the recent recruitment of Claire Binyon, AJOT has five directors, all of whom are non-executive and independent of the manager. No director sits on another board together with another member of AJOT’s board. All of the directors stand for re-election at each AGM.
Figure 16: Directors’ length of service, fees, and shareholding
Role
Appointed
Length of service (years)
Fees (£)
Shareholding
Norman Crighton
Chairman
27/07/2018
7.9
50,000
26,575
Claire Binyon
Director
27/05/2026
–
40,100
–
Andrew Rose
Director
12/02/2025
1.3
40,100
60,000
Margaret Stephens
Chair of the audit committee
05/09/2018
7.8
43,300
10,000
Tom Yoritaka
Director
12/02/2025
1.3
40,100
–
Source: Marten & Co
Norman Crighton
Norman Crighton is an experienced public company director, having served on the boards of nine closed-end funds and one operating company. Presently, Norman is also non-executive chair of RM Infrastructure Income plc and non-executive director of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc.
Norman has extensive fund experience, having previously been Head of Closed-end Funds at Jefferies International and Investment Manager at Metage Capital Limited, leveraging his 35 years of experience in investment trusts. His career in investment banking covered research, sales, market making and proprietary trading, servicing major international institutional clients over 15 years. His work in many countries included restructuring closed-end funds, as well as several IPOs. As a fund manager, Norman managed portfolios of closed-end funds on a hedged and unhedged basis covering developed and emerging markets.
Claire Binyon
Claire is a chartered accountant and experienced non-executive director with a distinguished career including senior roles in corporate finance, strategic planning, and M&A, across blue-chip multinationals and listed companies in a wide range of sectors.
She currently serves as non-executive director and audit & risk committee chair of Murray International Trust Plc and non-executive director and audit committee chair of JPMorgan American Investment Trust Plc. She previously held non-executive roles as chair of NHBS Ltd and as a non-executive director of IG Design Group Plc (AIM-listed). Her executive career included senior corporate development and strategy leadership positions at InBev, Cadbury, DS Smith, and Fenner (a Michelin group company) amongst others.
Claire is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), having qualified with Ernst & Young.
Andrew Rose
Andrew retired from Schroders in 2019 after a distinguished 38-year career specialising in Japanese equities. His career included 11 years in Tokyo over three separate secondments, where he was involved in various research and fund management responsibilities across the market capitalisation spectrum. His specific responsibilities included managing several open- and closed-end Japanese equity funds, as well as institutional portfolios.
After retirement from full-time fund management, Andrew served as a non-executive director and member of the Audit and Supervisory Committee at Uhuru Corporation in Tokyo for three years.
Andrew is a British citizen, fluent in reading and speaking Japanese, and resides in the United Kingdom.
Margaret Stephens
Margaret has recently served on the board of Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Limited. She previously served as non-executive board member and chair of the audit and risk committee of VH Global Energy Infrastructure Plc and was a partner of KPMG until 2016, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1988. From 2007, she played a key role in building KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Practice, also leading UK and international due diligence and structuring services on major merger and acquisition transactions and public private partnerships. Margaret was a trustee director of the Nuclear Liabilities Fund and chair of the audit committee until January 2024, non-executive board member and chair of the audit and risk assurance committee of the Department for Exiting the European Union and was also a board trustee of the London School of Architecture. Margaret is British and resident in the United Kingdom.
Tom Yoritaka
Tom is a venture capital investor, software executive, and board member with over 30 years of experience in the technology industry in the UK, North America and Japan. He invests in early-stage technology and science-backed startups, and working closely with founders and co-investors, many of whom are leading venture capital funds or C-suite executives of multinational companies. He also sits on the Board of Trustees of SOAS University of London, as well as on boards of various technology industry organisations in the UK.
Previously, Tom served in software product and corporate development executive roles at Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Microsoft in the US. Early in his career, he worked as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in the US and Japan.
Tom is fluent in English and Japanese. He holds dual British/American citizenship and resides in the United Kingdom.
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