Tokyo-based electronics giant Hitachi Limited has announced a bevy of changes, including a 2005 fiscal year-end dividend, the delisting of stocks from four overseas exchanges and c-level executive shifts.
Hitachi’s plans to issue approximately 5 cents (5.5 Japanese Yen) per share for the year-end dividend for fiscal year ended March 31, 2005. The plan will be finally authorized at a meeting of the board of directors in mid May, and Hitachi intends to pay out the dividend by May 22.
Hitachi has also announced that it has decided to delist its shares from Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris stock exchanges. Hitachi will maintain its listing on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and New York stock exchanges. Hitachi will apply to begin the delisting process in mid-March and expects to complete all delisting procedures by the end of December, although the delisting process may vary across the respective stock exchanges.
The volume of Hitachi shares traded on the stock exchanges from which Hitachi is applying to delist is low, and, therefore expects the delisting will not significantly affect shareholders and investors.
In related news, Hitachi has announced management changes after its board of directors meeting today that will take effect April 1. Among the many moves, current President and CEO Etsuhiko Shoyama was promoted to Chairman. Kazuo Furukawa, Hitachi’s current Executive VP and Executive Officer, General Manager of Corporate Export Regulation Division, was appointed to President. Current Senior VP and Executive Officer, Chief Executive for North America and Chief Executive Officer of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Hiroaki Nakanishi was promoted to Executive VP of the same group. Current Chief Operating Officer of the Information and Telecommunication Systems Group Naoya Takahashi was appointed VP and Executive Officer, Executive VP and CTO of the group. Current COO of Information and Telecommunication Junzo Nakajima was appointed to VP and Executive Officer, Executive VP and Chief Innovation Officer of Information and Telecommunication Systems Group.
