Olympus shareholders have approved the scandal-hit camera maker?s choice of new chairman and president but refused to comment on why it sacked whistleblower Michael Woodford in the first place.
NEWS UPDATE 24 APRIL: OLYMPUS SPEAKS OUT
Olympus has this morning posted a full list of its newly appointed executives, which can be read HERE
FT VIDEO: WOODFORD TALKS TO REPORTERS
However, Olympus?s plans to make a fresh start have been thrown into doubt, if news agency reports from a shareholders’ meeting in Japan are to be believed.
Incoming president Hiroyuki Sasa told shareholders: ?My mission as a new director of a reborn Olympus, is to fix the damaged brand and win back trust as soon as possible.?
But at the EGM, held at a Tokyo hotel, Woodford said that the board?s refusal to outline the reason for his dismissal means shareholders can ask courts to ?invalidate the meeting?.
This would leave the company ?without a new management board?, states Reuters, one of several news organisations whose reporters were watching the meeting from monitors outside the venue.
An Olympus official said the board could not comment on Woodford?s departure, citing the ongoing legal action he has launched against the firm in the wake of his dismissal.
?Amid raucous scenes at a Japanese corporate event, Woodford slammed the board and criticised it for keeping two of its members ? Kazuhiro Watanabe and Shinichi Nishigaki ? as senior managers,? added Reuters.
Olympus has said that the pair were not involved in the accounting scandal.
Woodford has previously said they should be replaced because they knew about the improper accounting, but failed to act.
Leading shareholder advisory firm, ISS, recently claimed that Sasa does not have the necessary experience to reform Olympus.
There has also been criticism, from foreign investors, over the selection of Yasuyuki Kimoto as chairman, amid fears that his links with Olympus’s main bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, may present a conflict of interest.
A spokesperson for Olympus Tokyo could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
LIST OF NEW OLYMPUS EXECUTIVES
NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Olympus Manoeuvres in the Dark
