OLYMPUS, THE Japanese camera maker suing 19 current and former executives over accounting fraud, will hold an emergency shareholders’ meeting on April 20th, it said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Olympus president Shuichi Takayama said last month a committee selected by current officials would nominate a new board by mid-March and investors would vote on new management in April.
Olympus, the world’s biggest maker of endoscopes, has lost about $4 billion (€3 billion) of market value since Michael Woodford was fired as chief executive on October 14th and blew the whistle on inflated takeover costs.
The plunge is attracting investors including TPG Capital, the private-equity firm run by billionaire David Bonderman, and Fujifilm Holdings. No decision on a strategic alliance to boost capital will be made until a new board takes over, and no specific talks have been held on a partner, Mr Takayama said last month.
TPG is weighing whether to join with a strategic partner to invest as much as $1 billion in Olympus, a person familiar with the matter said in January. While Texas-based TPG has spoken to potential partners, it is not clear whether they will pursue a deal.
Fujifilm proposed a partnership and investment in Olympus, saying its X-ray and ultrasound technologies made it the best partner for the endoscope maker’s medical business. The two companies together would control about 85 per cent of the global market for the tiny cameras doctors use to peer inside the body, according to Fujifilm chief executive Shigetaka Komori. – (Bloomberg)
