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Sanyo names Sano as president, lue to become director

Sanyo Electric Co, which forecasts a third year of losses, named Seiichiro Sano as president, marking the first time no member of the founding Iue family is running the company.

Sano, a human resources vice president, will become the company's president on April 2, Sanyo said in a statement distributed in Tokyo yesterday.

Current president Toshimasa Iue, grandson of Sanyo's founder, will become a director, the Osaka-based company said.

The promotion of Sano, who spent most of his 30 years at Sanyo in human resources, may make it easier for the banks that control the management board to shed the company's unprofitable units.

Sanyo last year ceded operational control to Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Daiwa Securities SMBC Co and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc in return for a ?300 billion (US$2.6 billion) bailout that enabled the company to stay in business.

Iue said in the statement he "failed to win" the trust of investors and financial institutions, leading to his resignation.

Shares of Sanyo, the world's biggest maker of rechargeable batteries, have dropped 34 percent since Iue became president on June 29, 2005.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 49 percent in the period. Sanyo's stock rose 1.6 percent to ?187 at the close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday.

Chairwoman Tomoyo Nonaka resigned on March 19 for "personal reasons," she said.

Sanyo hasn't yet named a replacement for Nonaka, who previously was an anchorwoman with government-affiliated broadcaster NHK.

Sano, 54, is in charge of human resources, according to Sanyo's Web site.

He joined the company in 1977.
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