Japan's Daiei names ex-Marubeni executive as new president

Troubled Japanese retailer Daiei Inc officially named as its new president Toru Nishimi, a former senior executive at its top shareholder Marubeni Corp.

His nomination was approved at an extraordinary meeting of Daiei shareholders earlier in the day.

Trading house Marubeni had said in August it would send in Nishimi to replace Yasuyuki Higuchi who is stepping down for undisclosed reasons.

Higuchi oversaw restructuring of Daiei including job cuts and the closure of unprofitable outlets based on a revamp plan recommended by the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan, a state-backed bailout body.

Daiei was a victim of the bursting of the "bubble economy" in the early 1990s after rapidly expanding its national network of supermarkets rapidly and branching out into non-core businesses.

Marubeni recently became the top shareholder of Daiei, raising its stake to 44.6 percent through the purchase of shares from the state-backed bailout body.

According to local media reports, Marubeni intends to sell a 10-15 percent stake in Daiei to either Aeon, Japan's biggest supermarket operator, or US giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The Nihon Keizai business newspaper said this week that the trading house was leaning towards picking Aeon as an equity partner in the supermarket chain but Marubeni has said only that it is open to an alliance with a rival firm.

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