Tokyo, September 25: Japanese government plans to launch a task force of corporate turnaround experts to help revive struggling Japan Airlines Corp, government sources said today.
The task force is likely to consist of some key members of the now-defunct Industrial Revitalization Corp of Japan, which assisted heavily indebted but otherwise viable firms from 2003 to 2007, they said.
Shinjiro Takagi, who served as chairman of the IRCJ’s decision-making panel, and Kazuhiko Toyama, who was the IRCJ’s chief operating officer, are expected to be among the members of the new entity, along with lawyers.
The new task force is likely to take charge of due diligence on JAL’s assets and of scrutinizing its business improvement plan to offer advice for the future direction of the airline.
JAL President Haruka Nishimatsu yesterday said he had met with Transport minister Seiji Maehara and asked for the injection of public funds to boost the company’s financial standing to enable it to push through drastic restructuring measures.
But Maehara, the minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, said after the meeting that the government would not immediately grant approval for fresh money, criticizing JAL’s business improvement plan as “still insufficient in terms of specifics and feasibility.”
–Agencies