Japanese restaurant and bar chains operator Colowide Co. said Wednesday it has requested that Ootoya Holdings Co. convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to reshuffle its management following Colowide's successful hostile takeover bid for the struggling dining chain.
Colowide, which runs a wide range of Japanese-style pubs and restaurants including the grilled beef eatery Gyu-Kaku, said earlier in the day it had raised its stake in Ootoya to 46.77 percent, above the targeted lower limit of 40 percent through the hostile tender offer that ended Tuesday.
The Yokohama-based izakaya restaurant operator held a 19.16 percent stake in Ootoya, which operates the set-menu eatery chain, before the takeover bid that was launched in July and extended in late August.
Colowide said in a statement it has requested that Ootoya unveil a new list of directors by next Tuesday while allowing some of the current Ootoya board members to remain to ensure a smooth handover of management.
If talks with Ootoya break up, Colowide said it would propose dismissing all 11 current directors and sending seven new board members to Ootoya at the envisioned extraordinary shareholders' meeting.
The izakaya restaurant operator has said it plans to improve Ootoya's profitability by sharing its central kitchen and other logistics facilities as well as joint procurement and food distribution.
Ootoya, which features healthy and what it calls "mom's food" cooked on-site at each outlet, opposed the takeover bid, saying Colowide's central kitchen system will "clearly lower" the quality of its meals.
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