Toru Nishimi, corporate senior vice president of Marubeni Corp., will succeed Daiei Inc. President Yasuyuki Higuchi as part of the trading house's efforts to rehabilitate the troubled retailer, sources said Wednesday.
Nishimi, 58, who currently also serves as chief operating officer of Marubeni's finance, logistics and new business division, is to be formally appointed as Daiei president at an extraordinary general meeting of Daiei shareholders in early October.
Marubeni, which became the biggest shareholder in the supermarket chain earlier this month, initially planned to maintain Daiei's current management team of Higuchi and Chairwoman Fumiko Hayashi until next May while sending a vice president-level executive to support them.
Higuchi, however, expressed his intention last week to step down and won approval from the Daiei board Tuesday after he said his role has ended because Marubeni is increasingly leading the way in turning Daiei around.
In a related move, Marubeni intends to increase the number of Daiei board members from Marubeni to five. Marubeni currently has one director on the eight-member board.