Third Point LLC's billionaire founder Daniel Loeb has targeted Seven & I Holdings Co. for management succession planning criticism, warning the grocery and retail group against letting nepotism determine its next chief executive officer.
Seven & I CEO Toshifumi Suzuki, 83, is experiencing chronic health problems and investors fear he may try to name his son, Yasuhiro Suzuki, to lead Seven-Eleven Japan and eventually become president of Seven & I, Loeb wrote in a letter to the company dated Sunday. Ryuichi Isaka, the current president of Seven-Eleven Japan, should be a leading candidate for the position, and instead may be demoted, Loeb said.
"The criteria used to determine the next CEO should be competence and the ability to run this company successfully, not family ties or preserving the Suzuki family dynasty," Loeb said in a phone interview on Sunday. Kimiyoshi Yamaguchi, a Seven & I spokesman, declined to comment.