E-Malt.com News article: Japan: Kirin Holdings appoints new president

Kirin Holdings Co. announced on February 10 a shake-up of its senior management just days after walking away from merger talks with Suntory Holdings Ltd., as the company looks to improve its sales growth and widen its global reach through overseas alliances and acquisitions.

The representative director candidates are to be formally appointed after the first board meeting after the general shareholders meeting held on March 26.

The company said Vice President Senji Miyake, aged 62, will become the company's new president.

The move comes after Kirin cancelled merger talks with privately held Suntory Holdings Ltd. on February, 8, walking away from a plan to create a rival to the world's leading brewer Anheuser-Busch Inbev N.V. The two companies have been pushing hard to increase their overseas presence in recent years, in the face of a sluggish domestic market that has been hurt by a shrinking population and a weak economy.

Kirin's incumbent president Kazuyasu Kato, who will become the company's new chairman, said the management changes were unrelated to the failure of the Suntory merger talks.

Since taking the top job in 2006, Mr. Kato has orchestrated Kirin's push into overseas markets through acquisitions and stake buys in range of companies, including Australia's National Foods Ltd.

That helped boost Kirin's ratio of overseas sales from 18% in 2006 to about 26% currently. The company is aiming for a roughly 30% ratio by 2015, and Mr. Miyake said he will look to "speed up" the company's move in that direction.

Kirin said in its midterm business plan that it aims to become a leading food and beverage company in Asia and Oceania. Mr. Miyake said the company may emphasize growth in China and Southeast Asia, since its sales in those areas lag behind other regions, but he also didn't rule out the possibility of new alliances in the Japanese market.


10 February, 2010