Citizen to Adopt Pure Holding Company System

JCNN News Summaries - Japan Corporate News Network, Aug 3, 2006 by Aki Tsukioka

Tokyo, Aug 3, 2006 - (JCN) - Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. has resolved to begin preparations for a shift to a pure holding company system with a target date of April 1, 2007 at the meeting of the Board of Directors held on July 26.

The shift is part of the group structural reform including the following: Stronger R&D, Growth strategy in Devices Business, strengthening of business structure, Industrial Machinery and Electronic Products, and overall expansion in size of the businesses, and stronger Head Office.

Citizen plans to adopt divestiture provisions which will make Citizen Watch a holding company and other businesses as its subsidiaries. The new holding company will have functions necessary for group management and a public company such as Corporate Planning, Human Resources, Accounting, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations to perform total optimization of the Group.

The introduction of a pure holding company system will be implemented subject to the approval at the shareholders' meeting in December.