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.
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