Japan Tobacco Expands Management Shake-up

Source from:  Financial Times 11/29/2017

Japan Tobacco has continued its management shake-up with the appointment of two new executives.

The moves come after the company’s recent, tentative decision to anoint Masamichi Terabatake as the company’s new president.

At 51 years old, Mr Terabatake will be the youngest person chose for the JT presidency since the company was privatised in 1985, and he has already been talking up its appetite for acquisitions.

JT said today Naohiro Minami and Kiyohide Hirowatari will both be elevated to the role of executive vice president to “further support the development of the Company’s business and expansion plans”. The pair are both senior vice presidents.

Like Mr Terabatake, Messrs Minami and Hirowatari will take up their new roles effective January 1 and will be officially appointed at the company’s general shareholder meeting in late March.

JT was “actively looking” for acquisitions, Mr Terabatake told Reuters last week. If there are “good deals, we would like to actively pursue them, even by taking risks. The scale does not matter,” he said.

The comments caused the share price of London-listed Imperial Brands, long seen as a takeover target for JT, to jump.

In August, JT splashed a combined $2bn on two Southeast Asian cigarette makers as it sought to boost its presence in emerging markets and diversify away from shrinking sales in its home market.
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