Third Point LLC’s billionaire founder Daniel Loeb has targeted Seven & I Holdings Co. for management succession planning criticism, warning the grocery and retail group against letting nepotism determine its next chief executive officer.
Seven & I CEO Toshifumi Suzuki, 83, is experiencing chronic health problems and investors fear he may try to name his son, Yasuhiro Suzuki, to lead Seven-Eleven Japan and eventually become president of Seven & I, Loeb wrote in a letter to the company dated Sunday. Ryuichi Isaka, the current president of Seven-Eleven Japan, should be a leading candidate for the position, and instead may be demoted, Loeb said.
Loeb, who first disclosed Third Point’s investment in Seven & I in October, has built a reputation for confronting boards over changes in management, including waging battles with Dow Chemical Co. and auctioneer Sotheby’s. His criticism of Seven & I is in line with his lauding of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to improve corporate governance in Japan by encouraging better deployment of cash and returns for investors.
(Source: The Japan Times Online)