The Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan plans to set up a new management team for ailing retailer Daiei Inc., IRCJ President Atsushi Saito said Wednesday.
The IRCJ decided Tuesday to support Daiei.
"We are willing to establish the team in April," Saito said. "But the selection of a Daiei rehabilitation sponsor may be delayed until the end of March.
"The establishment will probably come around May."
The management team will include a president who will be sent by the sponsor, as well as some directors appointed by the IRCJ, he said.
"Candidates to be the sponsor will propose their Daiei rehabilitation plans in January," he said. "The IRCJ would never select any sponsor whose plan might eventually shut Daiei out."
The IRCJ will try to quickly sell some Daiei group assets while considering their potential impact on regional economies, Saito said.
But he said the IRCJ will base Daiei store shutdown decisions on profitability. Some local governments have requested that stores in their respective regions be retained.
He also said the IRCJ and the sponsor will naturally focus business resources on food sales that feature higher returns.
The government inaugurated the IRCJ in April 2003 to turn around ailing companies deemed worth salvaging so as to help solve Japan's nonperforming-loan problem. It buys with government funds loan claims from ailing firms' creditors, other than main banks.