© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Cans of Sapporo Holdings’ beer are aligned during a photo opportunity at the company’s lobby in Tokyo February 16, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
TOKYO (Reuters) – Sapporo Holdings Ltd investor 3D Investment Partners has reached out to the Japanese beer maker’s five external directors seeking major changes in an attempt to improve its performance, the business daily reported on Monday.
Unhappy with Sapporo’s low profit margins and return on equity, the Singapore-based fund has asked the five outside directors to postpone the announcement of a new business plan scheduled on Wednesday, among other requests, the paper said.
3D Investment Partners and Sapporo Holdings declined to comment on the report.
In a letter to the directors dated Nov. 3, the fund noted that Sapporo Holdings had failed to meet its sales target during the past 15 years, and that its return on equity (ROE) averaged 2% in the past five years – far lower than rivals Kirin Holdings’s 14% and Asahi Group Holdings’s 11%, the Nikkei said.
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