Descente, the Japanese sportswear company, has fended off a hostile takeover from its largest shareholder, the Japanese conglomerate Itochu. As per a new power-sharing agreement, Descente's board of directors will be reconstituted, with Descente and Itochu each appointing two directors from within their ranks and confirming two independent directors from the outside. Descente's president, Masatoshi Ishimoto, is to retire and be replaced by Shuichi Koseki, an executive at Itochu. Koseki will assume one of Itochu's seats on the board. The other will go to Akira Tsuchihashi, who will become Descente's chief financial officer. Descente's two seats will go to Kim Hoon-Do, head of Descente Korea, and Norio Ogawa, president of Descente Japan. The independent directors will be Nobuo Sayama of Integral Corporation and Kozo Takaoka of Nestle Japan. As we reported in February, Itochu had made an unsolicited tender offer to increase its stake in Descente from 30.44 percent to 40.00 percent. Descente rejected the offer within the month.

Topics