Court nixes objection to halt of Kansai Super Market’s merger

Jiji Press

November 27, 2021

OSAKA (Jiji Press) — Kobe District Court dismissed on Friday an objection by Kansai Super Market Ltd. against a ruling ordering the suspension of the company’s management integration with H2O Retailing Corp.

Following the rejection, the western Japan-based supermarket operator announced that it plans to file an appeal with Osaka High Court, saying, “It is very regrettable that our claims were not accepted.”

The management integration with H2O Retailing was narrowly approved at a meeting of Kansai Super Market shareholders on Oct. 29.

Claiming that there was a problem in the vote-counting process, discount supermarket operator OK Corp., based in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, asked the district court in western Japan for an injunction to suspend the integration.

OK, a major shareholder of Kansai Super Market, aimed to block the integration at the shareholders’ meeting in a bid to take control of Kansai Super Market through a tender offer.

After the court accepted OK’s request on Monday, Kansai Super Market filed a complaint on Wednesday.

As a result, Kansai Super Market and H2O Retailing announced earlier on Friday that they will delay their management integration, scheduled for Dec. 1 to Dec. 15.

In the shareholders’ meeting, Kansai Super Market changed a corporate shareholder’s vote on the proposed management integration with H2O Retailing from blank to affirmative at the shareholder’s request after the voting closed.

In the latest decision, the Kobe court said the method for determining the decision by shareholders was illegal or very unfair.